(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
The Dallas Mavericks always made it clear that they were keen on getting Kyrie Irving locked in for the future.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have even traded for him in the first place.
Even so, and regardless of the fact that his market somewhere else was pretty much non-existent, Irving’s camp pushed some head-scratching narratives during the offseason, perhaps to put some pressure on the Mavs to get a deal done.
With that in mind, Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix told Colin Cowherd that whichever tactic he and his agent used obviously worked.
“Kyrie’s game, whatever it was, it worked”
—@SIChrisMannix tells @ColinCowherd how Kyrie Irving secured his 3 year, $126 million contract with Dallas pic.twitter.com/bH3z50B8cA
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) July 3, 2023
Mannix pointed out the fact that they leaked that Kyrie had reached out to LeBron James to team up in Dallas, even though James wasn’t a free agent, and there was no way that was going to work out.
Then, they claimed he was set to meet with the Phoenix Suns, a team that couldn’t offer him anywhere near the kind of money he was looking for.
Truth be told, Kyrie has made it more than clear that he loves playing mind games.
He’s always handled himself like the smartest guy in the room, even when no one is trying to get in his way.
Kyrie has always been about getting the most money — which is perfectly fine — so all this chatter was unnecessary; it was obvious that he wasn’t going to play for a veteran minimum contract.
At the end of the day, the Mavericks were bidding against themselves, and maybe they could’ve had him for a little less.
The post Analyst Details How Kyrie Irving Secured A Contract Extension With Mavericks appeared first on The Cold Wire.