Kyrie Irving has referred to his 16-month stint with the Dallas Mavericks so far as the greatest portion of his career while getting candid in an interview with Vincent Goodwill from Yahoo.
“This has been the greatest … portion of my career. To be able to now give wisdom and also speak from a place of experience. When you’re a young person, again, you’re trying to speed through life, you’re trying to get through everything.”
Irving also spoke about the supportive environment he’s found in the Mavericks organization, thriving within the structure of the franchise better than he could with the Nets.
“This is a supportive environment, and there’s a lot of energy and positivity, then this is where I thrive and this is good, fun, good-hearted people. Not saying I didn’t have that in Brooklyn, I was just saying that it’s all about organizational structure, and it’s all about how you treat your veterans. It’s all about how you treat your star players. It’s all about how you treat people with respect.”
Irving averaged 25.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 5.2 assists in the regular season this year, helping the Mavericks land 50 wins and getting a nice contract bonus as a result of that.
While his scoring has gone down in the postseason, averaging 22.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 5.2 assists, Irving has wowed fans with his second-half scoring and incredible defense to help the Mavs make the NBA Finals.
Kyrie Irving Referred To Key Mavericks’ Leaders As Family
Goodwill’s interview with Irving opens up with the 32-year-old guard talking about ‘family’ reaching out to him after it looked like his tenure with the Nets was finally over. The ‘family’ was Dallas Mavericks’ GM Nico Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd.
Kidd, in particular, was actively pushing for the Mavs to acquire Kyrie because he felt like a change in his situation would revitalize the then-maligned star.
“Go get him. Get him (Kidd told Harrison). We need another star. We felt that he fit next to Luka, and he was able to get him… We believe that we have the people power to turn that around. Nico and myself as being the head of that because we knew Kai … and it all worked out. I mean, Kai participated at a high level. But you can see he’s having fun. The joy of basketball is at a high. But the trust that he has in Niko and myself is at a high too, and I think we were honest with him and he was honest with us.”
With his fourth trip to the NBA Finals tipping off in two days, Irving reflected on going to the Finals one season after missing the Playoffs entirely.
“Like, because when you’re in it, and you’re in it, and you’re, like, I want to enjoy it. You don’t know how because you’re thinking about beyond. You get kicked out of the playoffs in April last year. I had to live with that the whole summer. And it’s not too often you’re back [in the Finals] after seven years.”
The Mavericks have reaped the rewards of a locked-in Kyrie, who has the opportunity to get his revenge against one of the fanbases that have actively rooted for his downfall. Irving scorned Celtics’ fans in 2019 by leaving them and now he has the opportunity to scorn them again by beating them in the NBA Finals.
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