Kyrie Irving gets his wish. He is traded.
And Luka Doncic gets another All-Star to help him in Dallas.
The Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets agreed on a blockbuster trade Sunday: Irving — the super-talented and often enigmatic eight-time All-Star point guard — travels to Dallas and ends the pairing with Kevin Durant that never really had a chance to unravel click.
The Nets are bringing Spencer Dinwiddie back to Brooklyn along with Dorian Finney-Smith and a package of draft picks, according to a person familiar with the terms of the deal and who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he hasn’t yet was completed. Dallas also gets Markieff Morris.
The Athletic and ESPN first reported on the trade deal. It will be complete once teams have a call to the NBA, which is standard for all trades.
The move comes just two days after Irving told the Nets he wanted to be traded until the league closed on Thursday after talks about a contract beyond this season didn’t go to his liking. He wasn’t with the Nets on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon his time with the franchise, which he hailed for growing up in New York and New Jersey, appeared to be over.
“Thank you NetsWorld fans and supporters for the love on and off the pitch,” Irving tweeted early Monday morning. “I will forever be grateful that I got to live the dream I had as a child with all of you. It will always be love from me and my family.”
It wasn’t immediately clear when Irving would make his Dallas debut. The Mavericks play in Utah on Monday night. ESPN reported that Irving would undergo a physical in Dallas Monday with plans to join the team for a game Wednesday at the Los Angeles Clippers.
“My first reaction was that it seemed like a really good move,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said Sunday before the Raptors faced Memphis. I think that’s important. And I think for Dallas they have a big star to go along with who they have.
Irving is averaging 27.1 points, 5.3 assists, and 5.1 rebounds this season. Doncic averages 33.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 8.2 assists. They’ll instantly become one of the NBA’s top duos, making Dallas an even stronger contender in a Western Conference where there’s no shortage of championship-worthy teams.
Irving is set to become a free agent after the season. The Los Angeles Lakers were believed to be one of the few teams interested in Irving – a notion Irving could have reunited with LeBron James, with whom he won a title in Cleveland in 2016.
The deal reunites Irving with Dallas general manager Nico Harrison, who was a Nike executive before taking over the Mavericks in 2021.
Irving has had a relationship with Nike throughout his NBA career up until earlier this season. when the sneaker giant dropped him — and canceled the planned release of his next signature shoe just before release — as part of the massive following of Irving posting a link to an anti-Semitic film on his Twitter account.
It was one of many dramatic sagas that shaped Irving’s time with the Nets. He did not get vaccinated against COVID-19 and had to miss most of Brooklyn’s home games last season due to New York City labor rules. He also took two leave of absence in the 2020/21 season.
He’s also expressed many controversial opinions throughout his career – including repeatedly asking if the earth is round before finally apologizing to science teachers.
The various expenses limited Irving to 143 games in more than three seasons with the Nets, and he and Durant were only together for 74 of them after their acclaimed summer 2019 pairing. Irving signed as a free agent while Durant joined the Nets in a sign-and-trade with Golden State.
After the Nets lost to Dallas in overtime in October, Irving said he sees the Mavericks as “a great team.” And he spoke at length about how much he thinks of Doncic’s game after the Mavs star had a masterpiece with 41 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.
“I think first we need to talk about how long he’s been playing professional basketball. I think it’s about 14, 15 years old,” Irving said that night. “He’s used to seeing so many different defences, so many different roles, which I’m sure he’s played abroad. And now that he’s in the NBA, you just see him. He plays at an incredible pace. He makes great decisions.”
Dinwiddie spent five seasons with the Nets and had his best season in 2019-20 when he averaged a career-best 20.6 points in 49 games, mostly when Irving was injured.
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AP basketball writer Tim Reynolds in Miami and Associated Press writer Clay Bailey in Memphis, Tennessee contributed to this report.
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