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NY Post
New York Post
8 Apr 2023


NextImg:Kyrie Irving appears ‘at peace’ after stunning Mavericks collapse

Kyrie Irving is zen following the Mavericks finishing collapsing and missing the playoffs after they acquired the point guard.

The Mavericks rested Irving and a number of their other key rotation players, including Tim Hardaway Jr., Maxi Kleber, Josh Green and Christian Wood, and played Luka Doncic for just 13 minutes en route to a 115-112 loss to the Bulls on Friday night.

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With the loss, the Mavericks are officially eliminated from postseason contention (but are in better position to preserve the top-10 protected draft pick that they would have owed the Knicks from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade).

Irving does not seem particularly bothered by the whole ordeal.

The mercurial guard posted a meme on his protected Twitter account showing Squirtle, a turtle from Pokémon, smelling flowers and feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

“Protect your peace at all times,” Irving tweeted, with a caption on the meme that read: “When you realize that you can’t & aren’t obligated to please everyone and stop burdening yourself under absurd expectations and finally feel at peace.”

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Kyrie Irving posted a meme of Squirtle from Pokémon smelling flowers to exhibit his zen after the Mavericks missed the playoffs.
Twitter / Kyrie Irving

The Mavericks had a stunning collapse after acquiring Kyrie Irving from the Nets in February.

The Mavericks had a stunning collapse after acquiring Kyrie Irving from the Nets in February.
Getty Images

Dallas was 29-26 and in fifth place in the Western conference when the team acquired Irving from the Nets on Feb. 6.

After the trade the Mavericks went 9-17, and 8-13 in games played by Irving.

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Earlier this week, former NBA All-Star Tim Hardaway Sr., the father of Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr., called out Irving and Luka Doncic for a lack of leadership.

“They’re missing a leader out there,” Hardaway Sr. told Craig Carton on FS1.

“Luka is not a leader. Kyrie is not a leader. [For] me personally, that trade wasn’t for them. I think I would have kept what I had because I was in the fourth or fifth spot [in the Western Conference]. What is not broken does not need to be fixed.”

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Hardaway Jr. disagreed with his father’s assessment, telling reporters from ESPN and the Dallas Morning News that Doncic is a leader “on and off the floor” and that “Kyrie has been nothing [other] than a leader since he’s been here — making sure that everybody’s good on and off the floor, texting everybody in our group in the player-only just to make sure everybody’s good, everybody’s holding together, staying strong.”