Kyrie Irving brings a lot of baggage with him wherever he goes, but for Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, it’s worth it considering what he can do on the basketball court.
“I think Kyrie’s just misunderstood,” Cuban said during an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio. “Everybody sees all the noise and everything around him. But when you actually talk to him, I like him. He’s open, he’s smart, he’s always looking to learn things… to me, he’s an interesting guy that’s just misunderstood.”
The Mavs owner added that they decided to trade for Irving because they “wanted him to be a long-term piece” of the NBA franchise.
"We traded for [Kyrie] because we wanted him to be a long-term piece"@mcuban tells @TheFrankIsola and @TermineRadio why the plan all along was to keep Kyrie with the @dallasmavs #MFFL pic.twitter.com/uzSqkRGkVe
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) July 11, 2023
After trading with the Brooklyn Nets for Irving last season, Dallas signed the controversial basketball star to a three-year, $126 million contract.
Irving joined the Nets as one piece of a potential super-team with Kevin Durant and James Harden. However, the entire thing imploded thanks to injuries, off-court drama, and Irving’s antics around the COVID-19 pandemic, and his tacit support of an antisemitic film that led to widespread condemnation. He also has a long history of dumb things like being a flat-earther and thinking that makes him a “critical thinker.”
We’ll see if Irving keeps things on the court moving forward in Dallas, or if we’re due for another weird Kyrie Irving moment soon.
