Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd wants Kyrie Irving to be a ‘Mav for life’
Jason Kidd wants Kyrie Irving to be a “Mav for life.”
The Dallas Mavericks coach and former New Jersey Nets star and Brooklyn Nets coach made the comments to Rachel Nichols.
“We’re going to do everything to keep him, and we hope that we’ve done everything to make him comfortable, and want to be a Mav for life,” Kidd said.
Irving and the Mavericks missed the NBA postseason after the team essentially opted to tank at the end of the season by not playing its top players. Owner Mark Cuban was fined $750,000 by the NBA as a result.
Irving, the West Orange native and former St. Patrick High School star, has been spending part of his time attending other team’s playoffs games. A former teammate of LeBon James in Cleveland, Irving was in Los Angeles for Game 6 of the Lakers-Grizzlies series. He has been heavily linked to a reunion with James with the Lakers for some time now, even when he was in Brooklyn.
Irving, who was dealt to Dallas by the Nets at the trade deadline, could re-sign with Dallas on a 5-year, $272-million deal or enter free agency and sign a 4-year, $220.6-million deal, per ESPN.
Want to bet on the NBA?
In February, he asked reporters to avoid asking him about the subject until after the season.
“I would love to just have the respect of you guys and everybody the rest of the season of just -- continuously asking me that just puts unwarranted distractions on us and our team. I’ve dealt with it before and it’s very emotionally draining to ask questions like ‘what’s the long term? What’s the long term? What is it?’
“I will say, from the start of when I came here, there’s been nothing but a warm embrace, nothing but genuine love and nothing but a familiarity of relationships that I could really look to in times of questioning or confusion. I could always go to these guys or ladies in our front office or people that have really made themselves available since I landed in Dallas.
“There’s just a positive note there and just taking it one day at a time. That’s all I can do in this life and what the future holds is really only gonna be dictated on what I do right now and how I prepare for those next steps. And that’s being the best teammate that I can in the locker room, being a great leader out here within the Dallas community, within the NBA and just continuing to be myself and develop. Just putting that to bed and focusing on what we have ahead as a team.”
Irving averaged 27.1 points, 5.5 assists and 5.1 rebounds with the Nets and Mavericks this season. Dallas went 8-12 with Irving and 30-32 without him.
“They’re really sitting here in a quandary,” NBA analyst and former coach Jeff Van Gundy said recently on the Michael Kay Show of Dallas. “If they sign Irving [in free agency] and then build around the [Luka] Doncic-Irving duo, are they going to be able to put around them good enough shooting, size and defense to be able to play winning basketball?
“If they don’t sign Irving, then how are they going to possibly have enough offensive talent particularly in the minutes that Doncic sits, or the games that Doncic sits? So the Mavericks are really, really in a tough spot right now.”
