Kyrie Irving on his time with the Nets: 'The girl that got away'

LOS ANGELES – Kyrie Irving was willing to open up about his past. 

Maybe it was the six days he spent in sun-drenched Santa Monica for a two-game stand against the Lakers and Clippers. Or maybe it was the fact that his Dallas Mavericks are off to a stronger start this season, sitting in fourth place in the Western Conference with a record of 10-6. 

But as Irving sat in front of a crowded room of reporters in Los Angeles on Saturday, he acknowledged that every now and then, he can't help but glance at the proverbial rearview mirror and think about when he was teammates with James Harden and Kevin Durant on the Brooklyn Nets before a trade sent him to Dallas in February, and the other two moved on as well. 

"I don't look back on that aspect of my career disappointed, I just think it's kinda like one of those – the time that got away, the girl that got away," Irving said of the infamous Nets' Big Three that coalesced to form what was supposed to be one of the greatest NBA teams ever but instead collapsed in epic fashion. 

"It'll hurt you for the rest of your life."

Irving's three and a half seasons with the Nets were filled with personal and professional drama, spanning from headlines for refusing to get vaccinated and promoting an antisemitic movie on social media to him being a part of a failed super team that was projected to win an NBA championship but never got past the second round of the playoffs. 

Despite his future appearing much brighter than his past, he still looks back at that period with the Nets wistfully. 

"You've got a great, bad wife, kids and all that," he said, "and you're [still] like…" – at this point, Irving cocked his head to the side and audibly inhaled in melancholic fashion through gritted teeth. 

"I don't second-guess it. I don't want to get in trouble with my wife at all. I'm not thinking of nobody else, baby," he continued. "It feels just kinda like that FOMO [fear of missing out]. You missed out on something great."

If the Nets are his ex, the Mavericks are his new spouse, one that's seemingly perfect in many ways.

After re-signing this summer for three years and $120 million, Irving is playing alongside Luka Doncic, a favorite to win the MVP award this season. He's playing under Jason Kidd, a coach who was considered one of the most skilled players of all-time at Irving's position. And since joining the Mavericks, he has not had any public drama, aside from a bumpy 20-game integration period with his new team last season, which, you know, could be chalked up to new relationship growing pains. 

But clearly what transpired in Brooklyn is still a sore spot for Irving, as it is for the team's other former stars. 

During Harden's introductory news conference with the Clippers earlier this month, he lamented the fact that injuries derailed his time with the Nets. "I had never really been injured in my career," Harden said. "...That was frustrating for me, you know what I mean."

As for Durant, in an interview with FOX Sports last April, he didn't hesitate when asked if he had any regrets about leaving Golden State in free agency in 2019, saying, "Hell no." But when asked about his time in Brooklyn, he took a different tone.

"I can just really appreciate the time I had in Brooklyn and just leave it at that," Durant told FOX Sports. "There's nothing too extra. It just didn't work out. But I loved my time there. I loved playing there. I just went to the next stop."

There are many reasons the Nets super team collapsed. Harden and Irving dealt with injuries. The New York vaccine mandate sidelined Irving for an extended period of time. The team was seemingly always embroiled in controversy.

Harden was the first to ask out of Brooklyn in February 2022, getting traded to Philadelphia for a short stint before landing in LA in November. Durant was next, getting sent to Phoenix last February. Immediately afterward, Irving requested a trade. 

Each of those stars are big enough to cause seismic shifts in the league, with Irving in particular getting publicly recruited by Lakers superstar LeBron James, with whom he won a championship in Cleveland in 2016. 

But the Mavericks went on to win the Irving sweepstakes, showing a willingness to turn their team upside down to acquire the divisive star, including parting with Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a first-round pick in 2029 and multiple second-round picks.

The Mavericks' risky move appeared to be disastrous when they went from being a potential contender to missing the playoffs altogether, including admitting to tanking down the stretch of the regular season. 

Irving, however, decided to return to the Mavericks in free agency over the summer. And since then, they've thrived. 

Wearing one dangling beaded earring and multiple beaded necklaces, Irving proudly talked about why he and Doncic are working so well together this season when they seemed incompatible just a short while ago. 

"We kinda know each other's spaces on the floor or spots on the floor," Irving said. "We have the utmost respect for one another, but also we want to give each other confidence. It's not just me and Luka, it's the whole entire team. But a lot of visibility is going to be on us and our leadership. 

"So, we relish in that responsibility and he's been doing it here for the last six years. So me coming in and just being a valuable piece for the team alongside him, it alleviates so much pressure. I feel like I'm doing a great job. But at the end of the day, I still feel like we can get better."

Irving has opened up the court for Doncic, who is shooting the best 3-point percentage of his career (39.4 percent), while averaging 30.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 7.8 assists. 

Meanwhile, although Irving's stats look slightly less eye-popping than usual (24.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists, compared to 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists last season), he's playing extremely efficient basketball, selflessly ceding the limelight to Doncic when appropriate and assuming a very important leadership role. 

They've especially shined in the clutch, where the Mavericks are a league-best 7-1 in games that are within five points in the final five minutes. 

They recovered from consecutive 15-point deficits against Charlotte and Orlando earlier this month. And against the Lakers last week, Irving made a game-winning 3-pointer to finish with 28 points, while Doncic poured in 30 points. 

Their increased chemistry is obvious, so much so that Doncic is tired of fielding queries about it. 

"I've got about 1,002 questions this year about this," Doncic said. "So, I always say, we had the preseason together, so we got to work on our things together. So, it's way easier than last year."

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said Irving's impact on the team extends from top to bottom, where he has made an impression on everyone on the roster. Most notably, Tim Hardaway Jr. is playing his best basketball since he has been with Dallas, and Grant Williams, Dereck Lively II and Derrick Jones Jr. have all emerged as important role players. 

"He wants to spend a lot of time with his teammates," Kidd said of Irving. "A lot of times stars can isolate or do things by themselves, but he is really just taking the time to spend with his teammates to help them understand what it means to be a pro, what it means to be good and understand the work that you have to put in to be good."

It's still early, but things seem to be working between Irving and the Mavericks. It's exciting for a franchise that hasn't won a championship since 2011, when Kidd was wearing a jersey. 

But regardless of what happens in the future for Irving, there will always be thoughts of the Nets, the alluring temptress that had so much unrealized potential.

Could that team actually have been one of the greatest ever? What if the trio's time hadn't coincided with the pandemic? What if there weren't any injuries? What if Irving had caused fewer distractions? What if they had all given it a little more time?

The Mavericks currently have Irving's heart, but a little piece of him clearly will always wonder what could've been. 

Similar to how Shaquille O'Neal will always think about how many championships he could've won if he and Kobe Bryant had a less contentious relationship or Chris Paul will always wonder if he could've won a title alongside Bryant if former commissioner David Stern hadn't nixed a trade that would've sent him to the Lakers, Irving will always ruminate over his time with the Nets. 

In other words, "if only" will haunt him forever.  

"It's unfortunate that me, James, and KD are part of the NBA history of what ifs," he said.

Melissa Rohlin is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the league for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, the Bay Area News Group and the San Antonio Express-News. Follow her on Twitter @melissarohlin.