Following his shocking departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers and his catastrophic tenure with the Boston Celtics, Kyrie Irving's infamous stint with the Brooklyn Nets will go down as his Magnus Opus... at least for now.
Irving proved to be the worst signing in Nets history by wreaking havoc since day one, and they now have a grand total of zero Finals appearances to show for that. Notably, that didn't shy several suitors away from pursuing the trouble-making guard.
Despite Kyrie's well-documented history of lack of accountability and unreliability, the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, and Los Angeles Lakers all submitted solid offers for his services. The Nets, instead, sent him to the Dallas Mavericks despite having a lesser offer.
NBA News: Nets Played Hardball With The Lakers
According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, the Lakers finally decided to include their two first-round picks in a trade offer for Irving. Nonetheless, the front office thought that wasn't enough:
"The Lakers offered the Nets a package of Westbrook and two first-round picks in 2027 and 2029 for Irving in the last two days, sources with knowledge of the discussions said — to which the Nets informed the Lakers that in order to make an offer to get in the Irving sweepstakes they would require all of their young players such as Austin Reaves and Max Christie and pick swaps in addition to Westbrook and the two first-round picks,"Sharania reported.
Joe Tsai Didn't Want To Help Kyrie
But it's not like the Lakers' offer wasn't good enough. Instead, it all came down to pettiness, as Nets owner Joe Tsai didn't want Kyrie to get away with his desire to rejoin LeBron James in Los Angeles:
“The Nets, rather than trading with Phoenix or the Lakers, ultimately came away with the two Mavericks they wanted most and a better win-now duo than L.A. could offer: [Spencer] Dinwiddie and [Dorian] Finney-Smith,” Marc Stein reported. “The Nets also succeeded, as one source close to the process put it, in meeting one of the presumed objectives held by team owner Joe Tsai by sending Irving somewhere other than the Lakers — his preferred destination.”
Props to Tsai for at least holding his own and not doing Kyrie any favors. As talented as he is, teams and executives should know better than to want him on their teams at this point. It's not like he's done a lot of playoff winning since leaving Cleveland anyway.
