KYRIE IRVING WAS so ready to talk about the great basketball he had just played, pushing all the drama from his Brooklyn Nets tenure into the distance.
It was Feb. 8, and Irving had just dazzled in his Dallas Mavericks debut and strolled into the media room to review his 24-point showing in a quality road win against the LA Clippers.
He had dominated headlines for the previous week, beginning with a trade request the Nets quickly granted. It led to a blockbuster deal that severed his partnership with Kevin Durant and placed him alongside Luka Doncic as the NBA's new gravitational star hub.
But when Irving walked into an overflowing media crowd, the other size-18 shoe dropped. News broke after that the Nets had turned the final page on their unsuccessful superteam era by agreeing to an even bigger blockbuster deal; Durant was headed to the Phoenix Suns to form an even bigger superteam with Devin Booker and Chris Paul.