Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving was a hot topic of discussion over the last week or so, and he has now spoken out strongly in order to dismiss the false narratives about him. Irving made it clear that all is well between him and his title-winning 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers teammates despite his skipping the reunion and called out the media.
“Me and my teammates, me and my brothers who played on Cavs, we are good,” Irving said. “We are more than good, all right?… Me and my teammates, who won the championship together in 2016, we are straight, y’all, all right? It’s all love. And when I get back to the States, I’m gonna pop in with them, go chop it up. We’re gonna have a great time, all right?
“We’re gonna leave it at that,” Irving continued. “Because the immaturity behind using media to spin narratives? Psychotic. Psychotic. You got to understand, I’ve been in this media storm for about ten years, 11 years. And it’s okay. It’s not meant to be understood. That’s how people make money, too, right? Fair criticism is cool. Harsh criticism. Hey man, by all means, y’all got it.
“When you start coming at who people are as people, you don’t know who they are,” Irving added. “When you start coming at individuals, and you don’t know who they are. And you start assuming you start going based off of who people are from others. It never works out. But when you’re in a public position like I’m in, you gotta be okay with it. People are going to say whatever they want, do whatever they want, it’s life.”
Kyrie Irving confirms that there’s no bad blood between his 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers teammates who he won an NBA championship with, and reveals that he’s planning to reunite with them when he comes back from China to the US ❤️🙌
Kyrie also goes OFF on the media for creating… pic.twitter.com/rdarGoqqPY
— Slime🐍 (@ItsKingSlime) June 23, 2026
This whole saga began thanks to one J.R. Smith. Smith was among those who had made the trip to the United Kingdom for the reunion with LeBron James, Kevin Love, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, and Tristan Thompson.
Irving’s absence from all the pictures and videos led fans to wonder where he was. Smith then let everyone know that the nine-time All-Star had been invited, but ghosted them. While that would have been noteworthy enough, more twists followed.
NBA insider Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson reported Irving hadn’t ghosted his former Cavaliers teammates. Robinson claimed he hadn’t RSVP’d because his schedule was packed with other commitments.
Smith and Jefferson dismissed the reasons, with the latter pointing out that Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova were joining the group when they moved to Saint-Tropez. Shumpert and Dellavedova evidently were going to finish their commitments and join the crew later, something Irving, who played for the Cavaliers from 2011 to 2017, could have done as well.
This was certainly odd and had fans wondering if there was some bad blood. Irving would then finally break his silence with an interesting message on Instagram. Not long after that, Smith revealed the 34-year-old had finally reached out to them.
All of this drama was ultimately over nothing. Irving added here that he is currently heading to China and will catch up with his old teammates once he gets back. He also expressed his love for all the players he played with during his career, and so, we can close this chapter for good.
