Getty Image / Ron Jenkins
There are few players in the NBA who inspire more passionate opinions than Kyrie Irving.
He has had off-court issues that have led him to miss a lot of time.
Irving has also struggled with injuries, which made it so he was rarely available during his time with the Brooklyn Nets.
That time with the Brooklyn Nets ended with him requesting a trade twice between last offseason and the NBA trade deadline.
They traded him to the Dallas Mavericks at the deadline in a deal that didn’t work out too well for the Mavs.
They went 7-18 after trade and ended up missing the playoffs.
Despite the peripheral issues and the struggles of Kyrie’s recent teams, there are still some out there who believe he can be a part of a championship team based on his talent.
It seems one of those believers is the Dallas Mavericks organization.
Irving headed for free agency after that tough stretch for the Mavs and there were rumors that he could maybe go elsewhere.
He was scheduled to meet with 6 teams today.
Despite all of those meetings and the team’s struggles after trading for him, the Mavs and Kyrie are going to run it back.
According to NBA insider Shams Charania, Kyrie has agreed to a 3-year, $126 million contract with the Mavs.
Free agent Kyrie Irving has agreed to a three-year, $126 million contract to return to the Dallas Mavericks, with a player option in third season, @TheAthletic @Stadium learned.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2023
The fact that Kyrie and Luca Doncic didn’t have much time to acclimate to each other could give the Mavs and their fans hope that things will be better going forward for them.
This is definitely a risk for the Mavs, who need to quickly prove to Luka that can build a winning roster around him, but it’s one they may have had to make to avoid losing Kyrie for nothing.
They didn’t have a ton of other options if they lost Kyrie and now they can focus on figuring out what else their roster needs heading into next season.
For Kyrie Irving, he gets the long-term commitment he was hoping for and gets a chance to prove that last year’s issues after the trade deadline were a fluke.
We’ll just have to wait and see if him and Luka can get things figured out the second time around.