NEW JERSEY – NBA star Kyrie Irving turned heads not only with his strong 30-point performance but also his equally striking shoes in the Dallas Mavericks’ 108-105 Game 1 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals.
Irving paid tribute to his Native American heritage with the new colorway of his signature shoe Anta Kai 1.
Dubbed Chief Hélá, the predominantly brown shoes featured an indigenous tribal design with tassels draped over moccasin, a homage to his mother Elizabeth Ann Larson, who was a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
Kyrie Irving just created one of the best basketball shoes of the season! I cant wait until they drop???? pic.twitter.com/cKkR1ovyP7
— Kyrie’s Tribesman???????? (@NevaMiss24) May 23, 2024
The latest colorway of Irving’s signature shoe is expected to drop next month exclusively at anta.com.
Irving inked a five-year deal with the Chinese brand Anta, who also signed Filipino-American Jordan Clarkson to wear their sneakers during the FIBA World Cup last year in Manila.
Jordan Clarkson has joined the Anta family ????
— Naveen Ganglani (@naveenganglani) August 20, 2023
Anta Philippines announced that Clarkson will exclusively wear Anta when he plays for ???????? in the upcoming FIBA World Cup.
Both sides are also in talks of an agreement that would have Clarkson wear Anta for the upcoming NBA Season pic.twitter.com/gHrIgPvUDa
Irving’s deal with Anta also made him the Chief Creative Officer of Anta basketball. His new sneaker deal came after Nike did not renew his contract following a string of controversies from his anti-COVID vaccine stance to sharing antisemitic content on social media towards the end of his tenure in Brooklyn in 2022.
Irving is finding redemption in Dallas, helping the Mavericks reach the Western Conference Finals in his first full season with the team.
Averaging 21.8 points and 5.3 assists in the playoffs, the 32-year-old Irving has formed one of the NBA’s most explosive backcourt tandem with Mavericks franchise star Luka Doncic.
Among the four teams left standing, the Mavericks (+370) have the second-best odds to win the NBA championship behind the Boston Celtics (-195) at FanDuel, whom Texas Betting views as one of the first sportsbooks in Dallas if the state legislative approves Texas House Bill 1942, which would allow sports betting to enter the state.
The Adelson and Dumont families, who run Las Vegas Sands Corp, bought majority stakes of the Mavericks last year from Mark Cuban, who remains a minority owner and in charge of basketball operations, with the hopes of expanding their gambling empire beyond Las Vegas.
The financial muscle of the new majority owners comes at the perfect time as Doncic is in line for the richest contract in NBA history next year — five-year, $346 million — after getting named to his fifth consecutive All-NBA First Team selection.
Meanwhile, Irving signed a three-year, $120-million deal with the Mavericks last offseason.
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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based website Heavy.com.