Guard for the Mavericks Kyrie Irving has talked candidly about his friendship with fellow player Luka Doncic and his decision to leave Dallas.

Amidst widespread rumors that he would join LeBron’s Lakers, the eight-time All-Star re-signed with Dallas during free agency on a three-year contract for up to $126 million.

The 31-year-old acknowledged there weren’t many other options available, but he was still more than glad to return to Dallas.

“It wasn’t too difficult of a process,” Irving said after Thursday’s practice. “Had Dallas as No. 1 on my list. Obviously I looked elsewhere — salary cap opportunities, where I could fit in with other guys around the league — but there just wasn’t much space. And me being 31 now, I had to have a different vantage point, and I felt like I could not just settle here but be happy to come back here and be welcomed back with a warm embrace.

“I had already dealt with enough last season or the past two seasons, so they knew that I just wanted a lot of that off my back and off my shoulders of feeling like I had to be Superman or I had to be perfect. I just wanted to be myself. And then going on the last few years, just figuring myself out. So I think this is the best place to do it and continue to mature and grow as a man.”

Irving is such a fan of the Mavs that he expressed his “wishes” that the team had the opportunity to choose him in 2011. Cavs supporters, that one has to hurt.

Regarding his on-court partnership with Slovenian sensation Luka Doncic, Irving claims that too many unreasonable expectations were put on them in too short a period of time.

“I think we were being too passive with one another,” Irving said. “We’re both killers on the court, everybody knows it. We want to win. So we just have to continue to have that consistent mentality together and lead the team as best we can alongside other guys that have experience in this league or young guys that we have to coach even more. So it’s all been a learning experience. It was so quick last year and it was so much pressure on us to win now, win big, and ‘It’s Luka and Kyrie, why can’t you guys win games?’ So we were answering a lot of questions that honestly I don’t think we were ready for.

“And health is everything in this league. So us not being 100 percent and going through last season and trying to do the best we could mentally and emotionally and physically, I got to give ourselves some grace and some credit.”

Doncic (thigh) and Irving (foot) both had injuries toward the end of the season.

Additionally, the duo had a 5-11 record in the games they did play together, and eventually, the team fell short of qualifying for the postseason.

Luka thinks that having more time to work out with Kyrie throughout preseason and training camp will be crucial.

All the information we require will be revealed throughout the Mavericks 2023–24 season.