Draymond Green calls Joe Tsai ‘petty’ for not trading Kyrie Irving to Lakers

When Kyrie Irving requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets last week, many assumed that he would end up on the Los Angeles Lakers.

Now that Irving is officially a member of the Dallas Mavericks, fellow NBA star Draymond Green has called out Nets governor Joe Tsai for not dealing with the Lakers.

“I am told that they would not trade him to the Lakers, and that is what I call billionaire petty,” he said. “That is Joe Tsai saying, ‘Listen man, that’s where he want to go? I don’t care if they offer the best deal or not. I can be petty too.’ And billionaire petty is a different level of petty. And not many people can compete with billionaire petty.”

Based on what is known about Irving’s approach, it certainly seems possible that his preferred destination was L.A. He made news shortly after the trade to the Mavericks became official when he referred to what “could have been or what should be” when when talking about being linked to the Lakers.

For the Lakers, their inability to get a deal done for Irving now leaves them with just over 24 hours to try to make moves to improve the roster. The Lakers now have the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in LeBron James, but that fact hasn’t led to consistent winning this season.

The Lakers are 25-30 on the season, and the proximity that they once had to a playoff spot and berth in the play-in tournament is starting to slip away. They’re now two games back from the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference and four games back from the No. 6 seed.

There certainly has been no lack of rumors and reports when it comes to which players the Lakers might be interested in adding prior to the trade deadline. Though, it seems highly unlikely that they’ll be able to acquire a star of Irving’s caliber.

However, there is no reason why a trade or two to add some really valuable rotational players can’t get done. Only time will tell.

If the Lakers prove unable to make a move, it seems highly likely that the team will miss the playoffs for the eighth time in the last 10 years.