Kyrie Irving Explains Why He Rejected Lakers In Favor Of Mavericks

Kyrie Irving had a brief flirtation period with the Los Angeles Lakers last year before ultimately doubling down on his commitment to the Dallas Mavericks.

For a while, it seemed like Irving was genuinely interested in a reunion with LeBron James. Ultimately, however, it never came together.

Irving went on to have an immensely successful season with the Mavericks that has seen him make it the second round of the playoffs.

James’ Lakers, conversely, got bounced in the first round of the postseason.

This past week, Irving shined a light on what precisely went wrong between him and the Lakers.

“Everything was considered,” Irving said in an interview Fox Sports regarding a possible reunion with James.

So what went wrong then? Apparently Los Angeles’ front office fumbled it in some capacity.

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“He’s a great friend of mine, a great brother of mine,” Irving continued.

“We obviously played together [in Cleveland]. Everybody knows our History. But there were so many different factors in between. When it comes to Business decisions, you have to ask the GMs, the presidents why certain things didn’t work out.”

The Lakers definitely could have used Irving this past season. There were multiple times throughout the year where James and Anthony Davis would have great Games, but a third star simply wasn’t around to step up and help.

Irving would have changed that.

Will the Lakers and Irving find a way to come together at some point before James’ retirement in the not-so-distant future? The answer is increasingly looking like it will be no.

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Carlos Garcia

A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.