The Dallas Mavericks star guard considered taking his talents to Los Angeles to reunite with LeBron James before being traded to Dallas

Former teammates Kyrie Irving and LeBron James nearly reunited. The two won an NBA Championship together with the Cleveland Cavaliers in a miracle 3-1 comeback series victory over the Golden State Warriors in 2016.

Since their departure, James has won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, though Irving still seeks his second career championship, now looking to do so with the Dallas Mavericks.

Before being traded to Dallas, Irving was exploring offseason moves he could make after his final season under contract with the Brooklyn Nets — where he signed in 2019 to team up with Kevin Durant.

Irving told FOX Sports’ Melissa Rohlin he considered reuniting with James, joining the Los Angeles Lakers after requesting a trade from the Nets in 2023.

“Everything was considered,” Irving told Rohlin. “He’s a great friend of mine, a great brother of mine. We obviously played together [in Cleveland]. Everybody knows our history. But there were so many different factors in between. When it comes to business decisions, you have to ask the GMs, the presidents why certain things didn’t work out.”

While the trio of Irving, James, and Anthony Davis likely would have resulted in more wins for the Lakers this season, the pairing of Irving and Luka Doncic in Dallas has shown potential.
In his first full season with the Mavericks, Irving is in a position to close out the LA Clippers in Game 6 as Dallas leads the series 3-2. In a world where Irving ends up with the Lakers, there is no telling how things would have ended up, or whether he would have received a contract extension like he did with the Mavericks.

Now, things will get interesting as James can opt out of his contract this offseason and become an unrestricted free agent. Maybe Irving can do a bit of recruiting to get James into the DFW to make a title push with Doncic and his former teammate.