Brooklyn Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie was one of the guys who swayed Kyrie Irving to sign with them this offseason.
What has been one of the biggest signings this offseason, the Brooklyn Nets came to terms with Kyrie Irving on Sunday. The contract is for four years, $141 million.
The superstar point guard will now team up with the also newly-signed Kevin Durant when he returns from rehabbing his ruptured Achilles. Durant signed a four-year, $164 million contract.
Despite numerous forms of tampering, the NBA league office doesn’t consider player-to-player interactions as tampering. However, only when the player isn’t directed by their team’s front office to do so. And that’s what reportedly happened with Irving.
According to Marc Stein of the New York Times, Irving had a prior connection with Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie. The veteran Dinwiddie took a class at Harvard University with Irving last Fall.
“Irving’s fondness for the Nets, which grew throughout a season of tension and disappointment with the Boston Celtics, is not merely an offshoot of his New Jersey childhood,” writes Stein. “It stems in part from a hard sell of the franchise to Irving by Spencer Dinwiddie, the Nets reserve guard, after they shared a course at Harvard in September. Dinwiddie was Irving’s classmate in a Harvard Business School program for athletes, ‘Crossover Into Business,’ that commenced last fall and continued remotely for a semester.
“It was there that the two players from disparate talent tiers began building the bond that led to a regular dialogue and, by Sunday, brought Dinwiddie to the Nets’ practice facility [for the Irving signing announcemen].”
Irving, Dinwiddie, and Caris LeVert will man the backcourt for the Nets this season. The organization was a playoff team this past year, but will be looking to be contenders for years to come. And with Irving, Durant and newly-signed center DeAndre Jordan, the roster should be one of the more talented in the Eastern Conference.
