“Be my Guest”: Kyrie Irving Offers to Let Mavericks Fans Play in His Place After Getting Booed During Their Hornets Loss

Kyrie Irving received boos from the Dallas Mavericks crowd last night as a rough performance by him led to an upset loss for the Mavs.

The Kyrie Irving era in Dallas has been quite underwhelming thus far, to say the least. The Mavericks have fallen from a top-6 berth consistently in the first half of the season to 11th.

Their latest loss – to the lowly Charlotte Hornets playing without LaMelo – underlines the magnitude of their struggles. This is a team that doesn’t run out much in transition, gets outrebounded regularly and is now shorn of its best defender.

Acquiring Irving at the cost of giving up Dorian Finney-Smith has turned out to be a net neutral. Their point-of-attack defense is now nothing but inviting to the NBA’s elite guards, whose number is increasing every season.

The Mavs allowed all 7 of the Hornets’ active players on the night to reach double digits. Something has clearly gotta give, otherwise, they risk letting Luka Doncic walk away via a trade.

Kyrie Irving snaps at Mavericks fans for booing him

Kyrie turned in a thoroughly disappointing performance against a team he would normally be expected to manhandle. The 31-year-old had just 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting from the field.

His performance led to tons of boos from the Mavericks as time wound down on their defeat on the night. The American Airlines Center crowd seems to be done with Irving less than 2 months after his arrival.

The boos have definitely affected Irving, who has otherwise been a worthy offensive acquisition thus far. He was prickly when talking about his response to his home team’s boos:

“So what? … You obviously want to play well, but you it’s only five people on the court that can play for Dallas Mavericks. If the fans wanna change places, then hey, be my guest. Got years of work ahead to be great enough to be on this level.”

Kyrie Irving on boos in Dallas: “So what? … You obviously want to play well, but you it’s only five people on the court that can play for Dallas Mavericks. If the fans wanna change places, then hey, be my guest. Got years of work ahead to be great enough to be on this level.”

— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) March 25, 2023

The Irving experiment has the potential to end the Mavericks’ championship window

The Dallas Mavericks front office was universally panned for not retaining Jalen Brunson in the summer last year. They started their free agent bidding for their redoubtable sixth man with a paltry 4-year, $55 million offer.

It was no surprise, therefore, when Brunson walked to the New York Knicks on a much larger 5-year, $110 million deal. Given his performances this year, one could say that even this current contract undervalues him significantly.

Irving is a free agent this summer. His likelihood of re-signing with the Mavericks seem to be already low on the surface when he was traded here. Last night’s boos will likely further reduce his chances of returning to Dallas.

With low draft capital and Doncic failing to make another postseason run, this could mean curtains for what promised to be an exciting era of basketball in Dallas.