Mavs' Kyrie Irving Wanted Nets to Release Him: 'It Would've Made Things a Lot Easier'

Veteran point guard Kyrie Irving will face the Brooklyn Nets on Friday for the first time since the team traded him to the Dallas Mavericks in February.

Irving discussed the end of his tenure in Brooklyn with Brian Lewis of the New York Post, and he said he wished he parted ways with the franchise earlier when he was away from the team due to his failure to adhere to New York City's vaccine mandates.

"Brooklyn should have just released me, and it would've made things a lot easier on everybody," Irving said, pointing out how differently Texas handled the COVID-19 pandemic. "But, but 20/20 hindsight."

Irving said his trade request came after he realized that his relationship with the Nets reached a point of no return.

"For me, it was the best decision of my career to ask for a trade," he said. "I knew I needed peace of mind. It was rough all the way around. After COVID and after the situations that took place there, there were circumstances that were either in my control or out of my control. And I didn't want to play the blame game."

Irving went on to place blame on the media for the contentious end to his time in Brooklyn, which included a suspension for his refusal to apologize for promoting an antisemitic film.

"I had a media interview and I said there was some disrespectful things going on behind the scenes—and that happens in every organization as an employee, so it's not out of the ordinary to come out and communicate that—but again, when it's me, it's a fire-starter," Irving said. "Everyone loves to use my name to build up whatever credibility they need. And at the end of the day, I don't have a problem with that."

He added: "I think my criticism is fair, as long as you keep it on the court and judge me off the success of our team and don't try to dig too deep into who I am as a person, because I don't show who I am as a person in this business, because it's always constant, constant, constant eyewitness views, just random things that I don't agree that's being written about me."

Irving's departure from Brooklyn destroyed the franchise's hopes to compete for a championship, as it also led to Kevin Durant being traded away last season. The Nets have a revamped roster that will be competitive this season, but they will not be among the elite teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets lost their opener on Wednesday to the Cleveland Cavaliers, so they will be looking to bounce back when they meet Irving and the Mavs.