Kyrie Irving talks about meshing with Luka Doncic, says he’s excited to start the season in Dallas

Kyrie Irving goes one-on-one with Sam Gannon

FOX 4's Sam Gannon talks to Mavericks star Kyrie Irving to talk about playing with Luka and what he credits for his success in the NBA.

DALLAS - The Dallas Mavericks opened their season Wednesday night with a win against the San Antonio Spurs. They team is hoping to ease bad memories from last year.

The Mavs traded for Kyrie Irving in February to try to make a second-straight deep run in the NBA playoffs.

Instead, Irving and Mavs superstar Luka Doncic failed to mesh. And Dallas fell out of postseason contention.

Irving told FOX 4 that he and Doncic are much more familiar with each other now.

He’s glad they can start the season together from day one.

"That was the most important thing that we talked about last year was just starting on day one, and how we wished we had that time to develop our chemistry and to see how this was gonna work," he said. "You gotta learn how to take a step back and just observe and learn how to be a player around someone’s greatness of that magnitude."

Doncic was listed as questionable ahead of Wednesday night's game against the Spurs, recovering from a left calf strain from preseason games in Madrid, but he ended up playing and recorded a 30-point triple-double, just the fourth one ever recorded by a player on his season opener.

Irving isn't new to playing alongside a guy of Doncic’s magnitude, playing with Lebron James in Cleveland, with Jason Tatum in Boston, and then later Kevin Durant in Brooklyn.

Dallas represents a new chapter of growth for Irving, who now is more of a veteran and wants to offer help to his teammates.

RAW: Kyrie Irving on playing with Luka, goals for Mavs

Mavericks star Kyrie Irving sat down with FOX 4's Sam Gannon to talk about the upcoming season. He's excited about working with Luka Doncic from day one and hopes that will make a big difference in their chemistry.

"Being around a lot of the greatest of all time to help me alleviate some of the pressure I put on myself as sometimes a selfish player," he explained. "We always wanna do well, we always wanna perform well. And that's what makes a lot of guys great is that selfishness. But once you learn how to be selfless, while still also being yourself and accomplishing what you wanna accomplish, then it's easy to buy in. And that's the position I play now is teaching other guys how to buy in to being around other people's skill sets."

Off the court, Irving added that he's trying to block out the noise and focus on himself and those closet to him.

"It's about how I live my life and how I treat my family and how I treat others. That's ultimately what I'm gonna be remembered for," he said. "I really just wanna focus on doing my job at the highest ability. And that's in comparison to who I was as a young player because I definitely wanted to be in front of the camera all the time and be welcomed by everybody. But the truth is you're not going to be liked by everybody."