Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban Strongly Defends Kyrie Irving: ‘He’s Misunderstood’

There was certainly no shortage of critics pointing at the Mavericks for their decision to re-sign Kyrie Irving this offseason. Even going back further, the criticism of the team’s decision to trade for him in the first place brought plenty of hot takes from analysts and fans.

But after Dallas made the decision to sign Irving to a three-year deal worth $126 million, team owner Mark Cuban was an open book when talking about the star guard during an interview at the 2023 NBA Summer League. In an interview on SiriusXM NBA radio with Frank Isola and Justin Termine, Cuban went as far as to say that Irving is ‘misunderstood’ two different times, including when asked about the guard attending other NBA games and his future in Dallas prior to the offseason.

“Kyrie just loves basketball and loves going to games, so no, I wasn’t concerned about that,” Cuban stated. “But we traded for him because we wanted him to be a long-term piece, you know? And I think Kyrie’s just misunderstood. Everybody sees all the noise and everything around him, but when you actually talk to him, I like him.”

"We traded for [Kyrie] because we wanted him to be a long-term piece"@mcuban tells @TheFrankIsola and @TermineRadio why the plan all along was to keep Kyrie with the @dallasmavs #MFFL pic.twitter.com/uzSqkRGkVe

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) July 11, 2023

Termine proceeded to say h’’s been a big critic of the re-signing, to which Cuban responded, “that's because you’re wrong.”

The Mavs owner then proceeded to discuss Irving’s relationship with other players, and explained that his relationship with players is excellent while also citing that Mavs players "love him."