The city of Dallas is used to watching magic unfold through the hands of Luka Doncic. The ‘boy wonder’ of basketball makes the near unthinkable happen, and he does so often. However, a man who gets shadowed in his frequent craftsmanship is Kyrie Irving. Yet tonight, even Luka Magic laughed in bewilderment at what KAI did.

Playing against the Nuggets, a quick sequence finished by a Doncic three tied the game. After the defending champions failed to hit a go-ahead shot, the Mavs had 2.8 seconds and a chance to win. Enter Irving, who had shot the ball poorly all night. Denver’s suffocating defense on Doncic left him free to roam, and he produced the most absurd wizardry in recent times.

Irving managed to hit one of the craziest buzzer-beaters in the modern NBA. The basketball realm went haywire. His former teammate LeBron James even called him the ‘most skilled’ player in all of history. This prompted a thought in a renowned NBA personality, what if the Lakers did unite this duo in the offseason?

What would have been if Kyrie Irving joined the Lakers

The NBA world was rocked to its core watching Irving’s elegant lefty-floater from the free throw line over Nikola Jokic to call game. Bill Simmons was amongst the many to submit to KAI’s anomaly. “Real basketball players were like that shots f*****g impossible. Nobody should ever make that shot,” said Simmons on the Bill Simmons show, stunned by what “Magic Junior” had just done.

His podcast guest, Ryen Russilio, agreed, stressing the degree of difficulty of Irving’s unfathomable game-winner. It was truly a work of art, the best of a painter at that. A little later in the episode, the two spoke about the trade deadline last season, when Irving was still unclaimed and lined with multiple suitors. Specifically, the Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers were said to be frontrunners.

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As soon as Simmons saw Irving’s shot hit nylon, his conscience went into wonderment of how it would be if he was a Laker. To clarify, he still wasn’t on board with the Lakers making such a move. During the deadline last season, the Nets were rebuilding, and the Purple and Gold were looking to move on from Russell Westbrook.

They saw an opportunity to make ends meet, reunite two successful teammates, and solve their problems. Pelinka offered Brodie and two picks. The Nets would ultimately decline, choosing to ship the then ‘problematic’ Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.

Russilio believes that’s the reason the Lakers didn’t try to amend their offer or pursue Irving with more determination. At the time Irving had missed eight months of action due to his refusal to receive the vaccination followed by an eight-game ban for sharing the link to a controversial Amazon film. He was the subject of the worst attention, and his availability was seemingly hanging in the balance.

Luckily, Dallas gave him a home where he felt secure. Even after missing the playoffs and the ‘troublemaker’ reputation he had been attached to, Mark Cuban and the Mavs offered him a long-term contract that he was looking for. Some instances suggested he would be a Laker like him attending a playoff game of theirs, ironically against the Nuggets. However, when later questioned, he revealed the Mavericks were always his top priority.

This season, the tandem of him and Luka Doncic are starting to find success and have learned how to flourish together. Irving is averaging 25.4 points per night and shooting 41% from three, a mark he only surpassed in the 2021-22 season. They are only a game behind the sixth-seeded Kings for a guaranteed spot in the postseason.

Safe to say, Kyrie Irving might have made the right choice choosing to prolong his career in Dallas. The question is can he help Luka Doncic like he did LeBron James and win another title?

Mavs’ Kyrie Irving Has MVP Contender, Who Is Averaging Over 34/9/9, In Utter Disbelief: “I Wouldn’t Be Able To Do It”