The Lakers had their chance to sign Kyrie Irving in free agency last year but elected not to pursue the opportunity, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
While the Lakers did attempt to trade for Irving before he became a free agent last summer, they did not pursue him in free agency despite having the ability to beat Dallas’ offer.
“LeBron wanted the Lakers to trade for Kyrie Irving when we was on the trade block, a couple of different times in ’22 and ’23,” Windhorst said on a recent episode of Get Up. “The Lakers made an offer at the trade deadline last year. Dallas’ offer was just better…”
Brian Windhorst says the Lakers could have created cap space to sign Kyrie Irving last summer but decided to re-sign the players who helped them reach the Western Conference Finals last season
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“The Lakers actually could’ve created the cap space to beat the Mavericks offer (in free agency) last year, but they elected not to. They elected to re-sign the players from the team that had just got to the Western Conference Finals.
“So there’s a couple of near misses. I do not suspect that we’re going to see an opportunity for them to play (together) again, but I would never say never in the NBA.”
Windhorst’s comments closely followed James saying, “I’m so f*cking mad that I’m not his running mate anymore,” in reference to Irving on the Mind The Game podcast.
However, it’s worth noting that if the Lakers had cleared the necessary cap space to land Irving, there is still no way to know for sure that he would’ve signed with them over the Mavericks.
But playing in LA alongside James would have been a very tempting option at the very least, especially considering Dallas had failed to make the playoffs in the previous season.
READ MORE: Kyrie Irving Responds to LeBron James’ Comments About Him
