DALLAS — Dallas Mavericks All-Star Kyrie Irving has reached out to his former teammate and fellow All-Star LeBron James to see if he would be interested in joining him on the Mavs, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania.
Bleacher Report's Chris Haynes also reported on this potential reunion.
The two All-Stars played together for three seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning the franchise's first championship in 2016.
Charania was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, saying that, even with this report, it's "probably very unlikely" that LeBron ends up in Dallas.
In May, James' 18-year-old son, Bronny James, verbally committed to play basketball for the 2023-24 school year at the University of Southern California, which is 2.5 miles southwest of Crypto.com Arena.
"LeBron James, for everything I've heard... he's happy with L.A.," Charania said on the show. "There's a lot of reasons why being a Laker, retiring as a Laker, makes a lot of sense for LeBron James."
Charania went on to say that Irving, who is a free agent this offseason, "wants to recruit" people to the Mavericks rather than looking to play for another team.
"The fact that he's going out and wanting to recruit a guy like LeBron James, it's clear he's putting on his recruiting hat and wants to get talent in Dallas," Charania said.
Irving, who the Mavs traded for last season, is an unrestricted free agent this summer. During 20 games with Dallas, the 31-year-old guard averaged 27.0 points, 6.0 assists and 5.0 rebounds per game as the team missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
In August 2022, James agreed to a two-year, $97.1 million contract extension with the Lakers, who he signed with in the summer of 2018. The deal included a player option of $50.6 million for the 2024-25 season.
So, James has one year of $46.9 million left on the contract for the upcoming 2023-24 season.
The Mavs were reportedly ready to make an offer to James last season, Haynes said, when the Lakers' season was going downhill.
Mavs All-Star guard Luka Doncic and James have both regularly spoken highly of each other since Doncic came into the league in 2018.
In late March, The Ringer's Bill Simmons said on his podcast about an hour into the episode that he was predicting Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, who has a player option this summer, would go to Dallas along with James.
"I think [Green] ends up in Dallas with Kyrie and with Luka and then Lebron tries to figure out a way to get there eventually," Simmons said during the podcast. "I'm feeling a Dallas scent."
After getting knocked out of the playoffs this season, James reportedly openly considering retirement for the first time in his NBA career.
James told gathered media during his postgame press conference that he had “a lot to think about” regarding a return for Year 21 of his prolific career. A subsequent report from Haynes indicated James was “not sure” about whether he would continue his NBA career.
NBA free agency begins on June 30.