LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Credits: USA TODAY Sports

Kyrie Irving and LeBron James were one of the most explosive duos of the NBA when they were together in Cleveland. And it seems the King hasn’t moved on.

On Mind The Game, he gave Irving his flowers for another great run to the finals, but not before expressing regret over not playing alongside him, in this edition of the NBA Finals.

NBA analyst, Rachel Nichols found James’ comments rather surprising as the team could have signed Irving this off-season but chose against it.

Kyrie Irving with 36 Points vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

Kyrie Irving with 36 Points vs. Minnesota Timberwolvesclose

While making an appearance on FS1’s show The Heard, the veteran analyst provided a deep insight into the trade situation that could have seen Irving join James nine months prior. She said,

“It was not like Kyrie was unattainable, he was a free agent this past summer and interested, he showed up at a Lakers game before he signed his Mavericks contract…it was all there but the Lakers elected against doing it.”

The Lakers had sufficient cap space to offer Irving the max, provided they off-loaded a few contracts to make sufficient space for him, which would include parting ways with talents like Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. But Rob Pelinka chose against making those moves, instead choosing to re-sign D’Lo, Hachimura, and Reaves over the summer.

But Nichols doesn’t think that the Lakers holding back on their signing of Irving was necessarily a bad decision, pointing out how both the Mavericks and the Lakers were in different situations.

Last season, the Lakers were struggling to settle on a singular talent to start alongside James and Anthony Davis. The Mavericks, on the other hand, were scrambling to look for a replacement to fill the Jalen Brunson void.

For Nichols, the decision to sign Irving came down to a team’s risk appetite, and the Mavericks seemed hungrier,

“He was a big risk last summer. It didn’t quite work out in Dallas when he first got there…it was a risk for the Mavericks too, to give up as much as they did to get him…and it was a risk for them to resign him. They wanted to take that leap, and the Lakers did not want to take that leap.”

In the end, the Maverick’s bet on Irving seems to have paid off well, as he played a pivotal role throughout this year’s playoffs,

especially in the Western Conference Finals.

On the flip side, the Lakers got handed a gentleman’s sweep by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, a result that could have been possibly avoided had they signed Irving over the summer.

Kyrie Irving to the Lakers was a real possibility last summer

The Los Angeles Lakers have tried to land the services of Kyrie Irving on more than one occasion in the last three seasons.

The first one was in 2021 when they tried to sway the guard away from the Brooklyn Nets.

Another failed attempt to capture Irving in 2022, seemingly led to the Lakers giving up on their pursuit of signing the point guard.

Ironically, the Lakers had just gotten rid of Russell Westbrook and wanted another guard to pair alongside their superstar duo of James and Davis.

While Irving was undoubtedly the best man for the job, Rob Pelinka decided to steer clear of it.

Looking back, the Lakers seem to have majorly screwed up, as unlike D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves, Irving could have properly matched up with Denver guard Jamal Murray, which in turn would have stretched the series out, maybe even overturning the result.

However, it’s too late to ponder upon the idea as Kai is already eyeing his next championship.