Draymond Green Calls Out Nets Owner Joe Tsai For Not Trading Kyrie Irving To The Lakers

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Kyrie Irving is now a Dallas Maverick, but reports indicate that wasn't his top choice for potential landing spots after surprisingly requesting a trade from the Brooklyn Nets last week. Irving reportedly wanted to be a Los Angeles Laker, but Nets owner Joe Tsai saw fit that didn't happen.

Despite the fact that Irving to the Lakers would likely have made life more difficult for the Golden State Warriors, Draymond Green called Tsia's actions petty.

“I am told that they would not trade him to the Lakers, and that is what I call billionaire petty,” Green said on his podcast. “That's Joe Tsai saying, ‘Listen man, that’s where he wants 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.”

Joe Tsai Seemed To Have A Grudge Against Kyrie Irving

Tsai not trading Irving to the Lakers wasn't the first time the billionaire seemingly had it out for the point guard.

Brooklyn's grudge against Irving began last season when general manager Sean Marks – with certain influence from Tsai – banned the eight-time All Star from playing due to his unvaccinated status.

New York City had a mandate in place that kept Irving from playing in home games or Madison Square Garden, but the team kept him from playing road games for an extended period of time as well.

Then, in November 2022, Tsai went public with his thoughts about Irving after the point guard shared a tweet about an anti-semitic film.

Other than being the owner of the Nets and an advocate of China’s communist regime, Tsai is a co-founder and the executive vice chairman of the Chinese tech company Alibaba. The tech company reportedly funded technology widely used by China to track its citizens in a region where over one million Uighur Muslims were forced into ‘re-education’ camps.

Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.