Getty Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks.
Although Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving was born Australian, he played for the United States men’s basketball team during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He won a gold medal with Team USA months removed from winning his lone NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Despite getting the opportunity to play with a wealth of talent on Team USA, the Mavericks star revealed that he did consider playing for the Australian Men’s basketball team. But Irving said that former Team USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who also coached him during his lone year at Duke University had a heavy influence on his decision.
“I consider myself an international player even though I played on Team USA,” Irving said to Dan Woods of NBL. “A lot of my peers laugh at me when I bring it up and some fans may not agree, but I was born in Australia. Team USA asked me to play for them when I was 17 or 18 … I wanted to play for Australia, but it just didn’t happen. Coach K wasn’t going to let that happen either.”
Mavs Urged to Sign Former Thunder Big Man
General manager Nico Harrison and the Mavericks front office are still trying to mold out their roster as the opening day of training camp approaches. They were able to secure priority number one and resign Irving to a long-term deal after trading for him in February. But the Mavericks still have questions to answer as far as their roster is concerned.
It doesn’t appear that the franchise will bring back their starting center Christian Wood who is still currently a free agent and there have been mutterings that the franchise could be looking to offload Javale McGee. Jack Bonin of “Mavs Money Ball” believes that 21-year-old big man Usman Garuba would fit like a glove on this Mavericks roster.
“Usman Garuba, two years removed from being selected in the first round, is available. The Dallas Mavericks should look to bring him into the fold,” Bonin writes.
“Garuba is a defensive monster at the four/five spot who can guard every position and make plays. He moves incredibly well and has an extremely high basketball IQ.”
Ex-Mavs Big Man Slammed by Former Lakers Star
When the Mavericks acquired star big man Kristaps Porzingis from the New York Knicks in 2019, it was thought to be a chess move that could push the franchise into the ranks of contention. But things did not pan out well for the Mavericks in the Porzingis era. In his Dallas tenure, the team missed the playoffs and suffered consecutive first-round exits. In 2022 they traded their starting big man to the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards traded Porzingis to the Boston Celtics this offseason. And after having a bit of a dropoff in the last couple of years, some believe this is just the move he needs to get back to the level he is used to playing at. Los Angeles Lakers legend Michael Cooper had some harsh words for the seven-footer after he joined his rival Celtics.
“Who the hell is he? The one thing I’ll say about him is that he looks like a Celtics,” Cooper said on his podcast.“That guy there was a flop in Dallas, was a flop in Washington…This guy was brought over from Europe. He is probably here to be a marquee player.”