Dallas Basketball

Kyrie Irving Skips Mavs Exit Interviews: Should Dallas Worry About Him Leaving?

A brutal season finally came to an end for the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, but now, questions surrounding star guard Kyrie Irving’s impending free agency have amplified.

Dalton Trigg

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Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said on Wednesday that re-signing star guard Kyrie Irving is the team’s top priority heading into the offseason. However, what Irving is thinking as the Mavs enter what should be an eventful summer is still a mystery.

Despite all the electric plays, smiles with teammates and giving the Dallas media some really insightful answers in several press conferences in his short time spent with the team, the Mavs never could find a winning formula with him playing co-star next to Luka Doncic. The offensive firepower was there, but the Mavs’ overall lack of defense caused them to spiral out of postseason contention after threatening to overtake the Sacramento Kings for the third seed in the Western Conference two months prior.

The Mavs wrapped up their disappointing season with a 138-117 blowout loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon, and they conducted exit interviews immediately after instead of waiting for Monday — a good sign that most of these guys have had their fill of this season and were simply ready to just get it over with.

Irving was the only Maverick to not speak with the media in exit interviews, though, which means the next time anyone hears from him publicly, it will likely be in a press conference for whichever team signs him this summer.

Skipping out on exit interviews might cause Mavs fans to worry that Irving has already made his decision to not come back to Dallas, but it could just be a case of him not wanting to deal with all the speculation that would come from him giving answers about his future that he might not even know for sure yet.

By all accounts, Irving has been a spectacular teammate in Dallas — a “pro’s pro” as Mavericks people have voiced to DallasBasketball.com. He has also seemed to enjoy the way the Dallas media has covered him in contrast to how things went down for him in Brooklyn. In Dallas, it has been all about basketball, even though the winning hasn’t come along with that yet.

Irving is a smart guy, and he surely sees the immense potential that pairing with Doncic presents, especially if the Mavs can fill in the roster holes around them adequately this summer. If Cuban doesn’t get stingy with his wallet, we believe there’s a strong chance the Mavs can retain Irving’s services and give this thing a second run next season.

Hopefully the next time Irving speaks publicly, it will be at a press conference with Cuban, GM Nico Harrison and the other much-needed roster additions the Mavs will be seeking.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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