DALLAS (AP) — The Dallas Mavericks and Kyrie Irving have agreed on a $119 million, three-year contract with the All-Star guard still recovering from a torn ACL that will sideline him into the 2025-26 season, a person with knowledge of the deal said Tuesday night.
Irving is declining the $43 million player option in the final year of his current three-year contract, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal isn’t expected to be finalized until the start of the new league year on July 6.
The new contract will align Irving with co-star Anthony Davis, who joined the Mavericks in the seismic trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February. Davis has three years remaining on his contract, with a player option that now will be the same season as Irving in 2027-28.
The agreement with Irving came on the eve of the NBA draft, with the Mavericks poised to take former Duke star Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 overall pick after winning the draft lottery despite having just a 1.8% chance to do so.
Irving also is a Duke alum, as is young center Dereck Lively II. Once the nine-time All-Star returns from his injury, perhaps in December or January, all three among Irving, Lively and Flagg figure to be in the starting lineup if they are healthy.
The 33-year-old Irving came to the Mavericks in a 2023 trade after a tumultuous tenure in Brooklyn. The idea then was to pair him with Doncic, and a year later the duo led Dallas to the NBA Finals for the first time in 13 years. Boston beat the Mavs in five games last June.
The stunning decision to send Doncic to the Lakers elevated Irving’s status, although Davis’ championship pedigree with the Lakers essentially put the two on even footing. Irving, who has averaged 23.7 points and 5.6 assists over 14 seasons, and LeBron James won a title together with Cleveland in 2016.
Davis went down with a groin injury in his Dallas debut, and before he could come back, Irving sustained his knee injury about a month after the Doncic trade.
Skeptics were plentiful when the Mavs traded for Irving, who wanted out of Brooklyn after 3 1/2 seasons of disappointments on the court and plenty of drama off it.
Earlier in the season he was dealt to Dallas, Irving was suspended by the Nets for what became eight games after the team said it was dismayed by his repeated failure to “unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs.”
That came shortly after Irving refused to issue the apology that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver sought for posting a link to an antisemitic work on his Twitter feed. Irving also wound up losing his long relationship with Nike as part of the massive fallout from what he tweeted and the reactions that followed.
Irving also missed much of the 2021-22 season because of his refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which left him essentially ineligible to play in Brooklyn’s home games for much of the season because of New York City rules put in place in response to the pandemic.
There has been no such drama in Dallas, and Irving has enjoyed a resurgence in his career. He was on an expiring contract when the Mavs traded for him. During the 2023 offseason, Irving stayed with Dallas on a three-year deal with a player option in the final season. Now he’s about to do it again.
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