How Kyrie Irving Intelligently Avoided Tampering Charges Despite Mimicking a Trade to Lakers on Kai Cenat’s Live Stream

Kai Cenat’s month-long Mafiathon 2 Livestream has seen a couple of basketball players make appearances, including former Finals MVP Andre Iguodala and Bryce James. However, on 25th November, Kyrie Irving, who’s been close friends with Cenat for a while, messaged him about potentially making an appearance too. He stayed true to his word, and on Thanksgiving day, Irving showed up in Cenat’s room, much to the streamer’s joy.

Irving had a ball of a time on the stream and participated in a ton of activities that Cenat had planned. They were largely just innocent fun until the streamer asked the guard to act out a hypothetical scenario in which he had been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. The NBA has strict rules against tampering, so Irving resorted to clever tactics to ensure that he wouldn’t get in trouble.

In the skit, Irving cleverly refrained from mentioning any player names, team names, or coach names. In fact, he didn’t even use the word trade. “S*** went through?” Kyrie started and then started discussing the logistics. “It’s gonna be Los Angeles,” Uncle Drew said, and that won’t count as tampering, as LA has two NBA teams. Further, he acted out as if he was getting a non-guaranteed deal. Irving made sure that even if the league office reviews this clip, they’d find no grounds to hand him a fine for tampering.

Of course, given that this whole scenario was based on hypotheticals, it’s important to remember that Irving plays for the Mavericks, and is reportedly in talks to sign an extension too. It does not look possible that he will be a Laker in the future.

Irving’s performance left Kai Cenat stunned. “Nah! I ain’t gonna lie, you good,” he exclaimed.

Fans reacted as you’d expect, as there’s been a lot of rumors flying around that Kyrie does want to eventually play with his old running mate LeBron James again. One commented, “He’s definitely been practicing this sh*t for when it finally happens,” claiming that Irving playing in Purple and Gold is something that he believes will definitely happen.

Irving’s ability to act impressed another fan, who ended up claiming it was no doubt, the best performance ever.

Irving’s links to the Lakers are nothing new. It’s been well-documented that the Lakers’ front office wanted to reunite him with James, but they’ve been unsuccessful.

The Lakers’ failed attempts to sign Irving

When Joe Tsai’s failed Brooklyn Nets super-team fell apart, teams were falling over themselves to sign Kevin Durant. Kyrie Irving’s reputation had taken a hit after his numerous controversies while in Brooklyn. The Lakers were reportedly interested in signing him then, and rumors were that he would have preferred to move to California too.

However, according to a report from Marc Stein, Nets owner Joe Tsai specifically did not want Irving to go to the Lakers. In the report, Stein stated that there was a “presumed objective” to send Kyrie Irving anywhere other than his preferred destination–the Los Angeles Lakers.

Irving looked back at the possibility of him signing with LA when he spoke to Melissa Rohlin of FOX Sports in May this year. He said,

“Everything was considered. 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.”

When his initial contract ended after the 2022-23 season, the Lakers were keen to pursue Uncle Drew again, this time as a free agent, meaning they wouldn’t have to part with any assets. That discussion ended rather abruptly after he signed an extension with the Mavs in September.