Kyrie Irving Trade Rumors: The Mavericks' Guard Tells His Own Locker Room Not to Let the Noise In
At 7-4 after Monday's comeback win over Indiana, Kyrie Irving says he addressed the trade speculation about him directly with his teammates — out of his own mouth, in his own locker room — and told them not to let it get in the way of what Dallas is building.
The loudest voice about Kyrie Irving's future, Irving decided this week, should be his own — and it should be heard in the Mavericks' locker room before it is heard anywhere else. Trade speculation surrounding the veteran guard has become part of the conversation outside the team during Dallas's 7-4 start, and Irving told reporter Noah Weber that he addressed the subject himself with his teammates, according to Heavy Sports' overnight file, read in full by this desk. "I think we're smart about our motivation and what motivates us in the locker room," Irving said. "I think we heard a lot of the noise before the season and some of the predictions… I let the team know out of my own mouth that these trade rumors, anything that's going on with me, do not let this infiltrate our locker room. Don't let this get in the way of what we have building here."
The second half of Irving's answer pointed inward rather than outward. "We should not let any external distractions or any external voices that don't support us unconditionally or want to see us do well to infiltrate our locker room," he said, adding that head coach Dusty May is "doing a great job of confronting us when we're not doing things right or when we're not living up to our standards." It is, as locker-room messages go, a complete one: shut the door to outside noise, keep the door open to internal correction. Irving is not a bystander to the start he is describing — on Monday night, hours before this file moved, he scored 35 points with seven three-pointers as Dallas erased a 13-point deficit to beat Indiana 125-122 at the American Airlines Center.
What this story is not is a trade story, and this desk will not dress it as one. Heavy's file itself notes that Irving's statement is not a guarantee about his future and announces no front-office decision; no source read this run reports a trade, a negotiation, or a team asking about Irving. What is verified is narrower and, for a 7-4 team, arguably more useful: the player at the center of the speculation chose to name it in front of his teammates rather than leave them to read it. Dallas's season continues this week with the thing Irving asked them to protect — the work itself.
