(Reuters) – The Brooklyn Nets have traded All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, whose tenure with the club included dozens of missed games due in part to his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, to the Dallas Mavericks, according to reports on Sunday.
Irving, who reportedly requested to be dealt before the NBA’s Feb. 9 trade deadline after talks about a new contract with the Nets did not go to his liking, also missed games this year after promoting an anti-Semitic documentary.
According to ESPN and The Athletic, the Nets will receive Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and second-round draft picks in 2027 and 2029 and a 2029 first-round pick for Irving, who this year was selected as an All-Star for the eighth time.
Irving, who has averaged 27.1 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds over 40 games during the 2022-23 campaign, faced heavy criticism earlier this season for promoting a film that he later said contained “false anti-Semitic statements”.
Prior to his apology, the Nets suspended Irving for at least five games, saying that despite holding two news conferences, he had refused to disavow anti-Semitism. He ended up missing eight games.
That followed a 2021-22 season during which Irving played only 29 of the Nets’ 82 regular season games as he refused to comply with New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Irving was selected with the first overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he spent six seasons before being traded to the Boston Celtics.
The Nets signed Irving in mid-2019 to a four-year deal with hopes that he and Kevin Durant could bring an NBA championship to Brooklyn, but the best the duo could do was a second round appearance in the 2021 playoffs.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis)
