DALLAS — Kyrie Irving said he was simply trying to enjoy his time with the Nets alongside his friends.
But when other people changed their plans and agendas, it prompted his decision to leave.
Friday marked his first meeting against his former team since that departure, with the Nets falling 125-120, to Irving’s Mavericks in a highly anticipated reunion at American Airlines Center.
“I was just trying to enjoy the time that I had with some of my good friends and my peers in Brooklyn, with James [Harden] and [Kevin Durant], the young guys that we drafted,” Irving responded to a question from The Post.
“We had a plan in place, and when plans change for individuals — and that happens, again, at any business — you’ve got to make the best decision for you and your family.
“So when you have that eye-to-eye communication with your teammates and people on staff, and you’re able to articulate how you feel, it shouldn’t matter what’s being said about you on the outside. And being there in New York, being in the media capital of the world, it’s the most political place in the world … other than L.A. or overseas places. But people carry or hold onto the weight of my words, and I’m not trying to put anybody in that predicament here or in Brooklyn. So I’m just really trying to move past that, man. And hopefully, everybody does the same.”
Durant didn’t ask out of Brooklyn until Irving had not only made his initial demand on Feb. 3 but got moved to Dallas two days later.
And the young players that Irving alluded to — the currently injured Nic Claxton, 24, and Cam Thomas, 22 — are still with the Nets.
However, Harden — who Irving and Durant had actively recruited to the Nets — was the first star out the door.
He arrived in January 2021 and was gone by February the next year, tired of Irving according to sources.
The departures of Irving and Durant slammed the Nets’ championship window shut.
But coach Jacque Vaughn said he doesn’t let himself wonder ‘what if.’
“I think it’s next [up] and start for us to think about this team here. So I definitely appreciate my connection with [Irving], but I’m planning on coaching this team right now,” Vaughn said before Friday’s reunion.
“One of the reasons that I’m here coaching is because of them and their ability to allow me to coach them, to communicate with them, to connect with them, allowed us to win 18 out of 20 games at one time. So I’ll never diminish the connection that we have. But we’re ready to move on, and everyone else is ready to move on. I don’t want to do a disservice to the team that I’m coaching right now.”
Irving takes particular pride in the imprints he’s left on the young teammates he left behind in Brooklyn like Thomas and Claxton, with whom he planned to spend some time over the weekend while the Nets are in town.
“Yeah, absolutely. Proud of them. They’ve grown tremendously. They put in the hard work,” Irving said. “They’ve been rock-steady. For myself, even off-court, I was dealing with a lot of things, and for them to be so young and want to be there for me emotionally meant a lot. That’s why we have such a great bond to this day. It doesn’t matter what team we’re on; we’re always going to support each other.
“Those little moments of interaction mean a lot for me. There’s going to be a time where I’m not going to be playing basketball; I’m going to be an audience member watching them. So I just want to continue to give them tools that they’ll take on for the rest of their career so they can mentor the next generation as best they can.”
Thomas acknowledged how much Irving’s mentorship has meant.
“Ky’s really smart. … It was all good advice. He gave me a lot of gems, and I appreciate him for that,” Thomas said. “When I first came into the league, I wasn’t expecting us to be teammates, but these are the moments I dream of, playing against guys like him. … He’s still my brother, but he’s my opponent [Friday].”
