The Kyrie Irving narrative turned from laughable to sad.
Here is a guy who walked out of Cleveland so he can carve his own path. Since day one, he never wanted to be the sidekick and yet he found success as the LeBron James' Cleveland version of Dwyane Wade. But unlike D-Wade, Irving is a player whose career could still explode. Wade wanted LBJ to take the lead in Miami but it's a different case with Irving.
With that said Irving went to Boston and messed up the establishment. Irving switched sides with Isaiah Thomas and ever since Boston has yet to find an effective star point guard.
When Irving moved to Brooklyn, it was basically the same thing. Expectations differed from reality. The championships he wanted were dashed because of his beliefs. The individual accolades he needed were replaced by DNPs. If people are iffy with the inclusion of Damian Lillard in the 75 Greatest NBA Players list, at least the only people Dame is letting down the people who wanted him to compete for a title.
Maybe Portland can trade for Lillard and let his contract expire?
But the thing about Irving is that he is currently on his best behavior. Yes, he missed a couple of games but it's not like he is creating controversy. It's just his presence alone can make an erstwhile contender into a cellar dweller.
This is scary for Irving because this is the same feeling guys like Ben Simmons and Russell Westbrook have at the moment. Yes, no one can beat Simmons in terms of negative image but I can see Westbrook going for a next-to-nothing price tag if this means he can prolong his career. Westbrook will play a game for as long as he can and people forget that he has a bad knee.
Dallas is in some ways, using him as a scapegoat. Of course, they never really deflected the blame on him but when Jason Kidd said that his team voluntarily tanked to miss the playoffs, part of the blame is on Irving because of his inability to co-exist with Luka Doncic. At the moment, the NBA has launched an investigation on Dallas that could result in a draft pick forfeiture. They are not saying this, but we have seen this happen a couple of years prior. The Mavs need the pick to happen because while it may not result in a Victor Wembanyama selection, this can be a valuable asset in the future. If the Mavs can't trust Irving to share the spotlight with Luka, then they will surely lose the talented Slovenian to free agency.
And potentially, they will still have two more years of Irving.
Ugh.