Editors’ note, Feb. 10, 1:39 p.m. ET: This story has been updated to reflect the Nets’ Twitter posts thanking Kyrie Irving hours after its original publication.
The relationship between Kyrie Irving and the Nets certainly seemed acrimonious by the end, when the team traded the All-Star point guard to the Mavericks following his surprise mid-season trade request. That much was clear by Irving’s statements about his now-former team after arriving in Dallas.
“I just know I want to be in a place where I’m celebrated, not just tolerated or kinda dealt with in a way that doesn’t make me feel disrespected,” Irving said at a press conference on Tuesday, via ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “There were times throughout this process when I was in Brooklyn where I felt very disrespected and my talent—I work extremely hard at what I do, no one ever talks about my work ethic, though. Everyone talks about what I’m doing off the floor. I just want to change that narrative, write my own story and just continue to prepare in the gym, and now that I’m in Dallas, focus on what I control.”
