All is well now between Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving and his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates. Days after calling out Irving for ghosting the 2016 Cavaliers, J.R. Smith revealed that the nine-time All-Star has finally reached out.
“He reached out! We GOOD! God Bless the young GAWD!! Greatest PG I’ve played with.”
Kyrie reached out 🙏 pic.twitter.com/9NB1hbOBms
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) June 20, 2026
With 10 years having passed since the Cavaliers stunningly came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, quite a few players on that team decided to have a reunion in Europe. Smith was among those to make the trip to the United Kingdom, along with LeBron James, Kevin Love, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Tristan Thompson.
Irving’s absence from all the pictures and clips posted online raised eyebrows, and Smith said he had been invited but ghosted them. That was a shocker.
With some backlash coming Irving’s way, NBA insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson reported he hadn’t ghosted them. Robinson said the 34-year-old hadn’t RSVP’ed because his schedule was packed. Irving was at the NBPA Top 100 Camp in South Carolina and then visited student-athletes at Teaneck High School and West Orange High School in Northern New Jersey.
Robinson also claimed that Smith’s comment wasn’t to be taken too seriously. That was said to be just some playful ribbing.
It turned out, though, that it wasn’t just that. Smith dismissed the camp point by saying it wasn’t on the same day, while Jefferson shared that Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova were joining this reunion later, once the group moved to Saint-Tropez. Irving could do the same once he was finished with these commitments, but chose not to.
At this point, we had heard from everyone except for Irving, who spent six seasons with the Cavaliers from 2011 to 2017. He would finally put out a post on Instagram on Friday night with a simple yet clear message.
“All for one. One for All. WE completed the mission together as brothers, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Irving looks to have followed this up by reaching out. So, all is forgiven now.
This whole “controversy” seemed overblown from the start. Irving wasn’t committing a crime by not showing up for the reunion. Smith calling him out for ghosting is the kind of behavior you’d expect out of some young player, not someone who retired years ago.
It will be interesting to see if Irving addresses all this during his next livestream. As for Smith calling him the best point guard he played with, that’s not a surprise.
Irving was a big reason why the Cavaliers won that title. He, of course, hit that iconic clutch three-pointer over Stephen Curry in the final minute of Game 7 of the Finals. Irving averaged 27.1 points per game in the series and firmly established himself as a star.
