Kyrie Irving is on his way out of Brooklyn after three and a half scandal-filled years in which the Nets never got out of the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference finals.
The Nets reached an agreement on Sunday to trade Irving to the Dallas Mavericks, according to two people familiar with the situation. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade had not yet been announced and they were not authorized to speak publicly about it. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Nets are expected to receive Spencer Dinwiddie, 29, a guard who played five seasons with the Nets. The Athletic was first to report the agreement.
Irving, a dynamic point guard who embraced controversy and conspiracy, is in the final year of his contract with the Nets, and had been hoping to work out a contract extension. With little progress on that, he asked the Nets to trade him last week, according to a person familiar with Irving’s request who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.
Irving and forward Kevin Durant signed with the Nets as free agents in 2019, hoping their talent could help lead the Nets to an N.B.A. championship. But Irving’s time with the Nets was tumultuous. Since signing in July 2019, he played in only 143 of the Nets’ 278 games.
When the two players signed with the Nets, Durant was still recovering from rupturing an Achilles’ tendon in the 2019 N.B.A. finals. He then missed the 2019-20 N.B.A. season. Irving missed the end of that season, which the N.B.A. resumed in a so-called bubble on the Walt Disney World campus because of the coronavirus pandemic, after having an operation on his right shoulder.
The Nets lost a first-round series in the 2020 playoffs. In 2021, they lost an Eastern Conference semifinal series to the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks in seven games.
Last season, Irving played in only 29 of the Nets’ 82 games because he would not get vaccinated against the coronavirus despite New York City’s vaccine requirement for private sector employees. The Nets initially said they would not allow Irving to play for them at all while he was ineligible for home games. But in January 2021, they changed course and allowed him to join the team on the road.
Irving’s stance irritated his former teammate James Harden, who joked that he would vaccinate Irving himself, but then asked for a trade. Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in February 2022.
The Nets were swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
This season, the Nets suspended Irving on Nov. 3 after he posted a link to a film that promoted antisemitic tropes and then refused to disavow antisemitism or apologize for posting it. Irving missed eight games and was allowed back with the team after he apologized.
When he has played, he has shown his value on the court. Irving averaged 27.2 points per game since his return, and the Nets have gone 22-10 with him in the lineup since then. The Nets are fourth in the Eastern Conference.
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