Kyrie Irving has been linked to a move to Los Angeles for months and his courtside appearance at Game 6 will only feed the Lakers rumors.
Maybe Kyrie Irving just happened to be in Los Angeles and wanted to take in a basketball game. The Clippers weren’t playing, so of course he dropped by to see the Lakers. Maybe he just wanted to show some support for his old Cavaliers teammate LeBron James.
Or maybe Irving is not-so-secretly signaling his interest in joining back up with James in Hollywood this time.
On Friday night, for whatever reason, Irving was spotted in courtside seats facing the Lakers bench at crypto.com Arena for Game 6 between LA and Memphs.
Kyrie Irving’s courtside appearance will only fuel Lakers rumors
Irving most recently played in Dallas after the Nets honored his trade request. However, his stint with the Mavericks didn’t exactly go to plan.
While he averaged 27 points, five rebounds and six assists in 20 games with Dallas, Irving’s partnership with Luka Doncic didn’t yield results and the team failed to make the playoffs. That’s a generous assessment actually. They didn’t just miss the postseason, the Mavericks imploded after the trade, leaving just about everyone unsatisfied with the arrangement.
Irving will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so if he wants to join the Lakers, that’s certainly a possibility.
The question of whether Los Angeles wants Irving is complicated though. They reportedly pursued a trade with the Nets when he became available but reports also suggested that the Lakers have no intentions of going after him this summer.
So Irving’s appearance at Game 6 is hardly a guarantee of a future team up, but it’s not nothing. The smoke around Irving and Los Angeles is there. The summer will reveal whether there was a fire burning under that smoke.