Kyrie Irving is set to face the Nets for the first time since last season’s trade demand shook the franchise and slammed shut their championship window.
The awkward meeting will take place Friday at American Airlines Center, with Irving saying that Brooklyn disrespected him and the New York media inflamed the issue.
“I was never on bad terms with the organization,’’ Irving said after the Mavericks practiced Thursday. “I just think there was a lot of chaos and noise, as usual, from the media. I’m not going to blame you guys or anything, but nobody really knew what was going on behind the scenes. I’m sure that people have their sources they go to [about] what was going on and what really happened.”
Irving has yet to divulge exactly what he feels happened, but made clear he has no regrets about his request to be sent out of Brooklyn prior to last season’s trade deadline.
“But for me, it was the best decision of my career to ask for a trade,’’ Irving said. “I knew I needed peace of mind.”
Much of that was due to the controversy surrounding his refusal to get the COVID vaccine, which led him to miss 53 games in the 2021-22 season.
Kyrie Irving’s tumultuous Nets time ended with a trade to the Mavericks. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con“It was rough all the way around,’’ Irving said. “After COVID and after the situations that took place there, there were circumstances that were either in my control or out of my control. And I didn’t want to play the blame game.”
But Irving didn’t want to play games for the Nets, either.
After missing games due to COVID mandates in 2020-21 and ’21-22, he also missed time last season, when he was chastised — and suspended — by team owner Joe Tsai for promoting an anti-Semitic film and initially refusing to apologize.
Irving missed plenty of time with the Nets due to injuries and COVID vaccine ordinances. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST“I had a media interview and I said there was some disrespectful things going on behind the scenes — and that happens in every organization as an employee, so it’s not out of the ordinary to come out and communicate that — but again, when it’s me, it’s a fire starter,” Irving said. “Everyone loves to use my name to build up whatever credibility they need. And at the end of the day, I don’t have a problem with that.”
But he sounded tired of being in the spotlight for all his viewpoints.
“I think my criticism is fair, as long as you keep it on the court and judge me off the success of our team and don’t try to dig too deep into who I am as a person,” Irving said. “I don’t show who I am as a person in this business, because it’s always constant, constant, constant eyewitness views, just random things that I don’t necessarily agree [with] that’s being written about me.”
Irving helped recruit first Kevin Durant and then James Harden to Brooklyn and averaged 27.1 points and 5.8 assists in 143 games for the Nets.
But Harden tired of Irving before Irving tired of the team.
Once Tsai and GM Sean Marks sought to limit their risk in the next contract offer to Irving, the All-Star demanded a trade in February.
That led to Durant’s departure, as well.
When pointed out how differently Texas handled COVID, Irving said with a laugh, “Brooklyn should have just released me, and it would’ve made things a lot easier on everybody. But, [that’s] 20/20 hindsight.”
Now the Nets are in a rebuild, partly based on players (Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith) and picks brought back for Irving.
Brian Lewis reported from Dallas and Dan Martin reported from New York.
