Inside the divergent and yet forever connected paths of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving

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.

Irving hadn't even settled into his seat when a reporter blurted out the question, asking if Irving had heard his good friend and former teammate had been traded to a Western Conference rival.

«I'm happy we got the win tonight,» Irving responded as he pulled the microphone off its stand, smiling wryly while fidgeting with his bucket hat. «Can we start with our team first?»

No, not really, because Durant and Irving will be linked forever to some degree, including what they failed to do together and what they will do after their breakup. And what they've been doing for the past month as they prepare for their paths to cross again in vastly different circumstances Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC) when the West's fourth-place Suns (35-29) and Mavs (33-31, sixth in the West) meet in Dallas.

AS IRVING FLIPPED in a reverse