How an enduring Drederick Irving taught Mavs star Kyrie Irving how to be a father, man

Driving from the gym Friday morning and heading to his apartment in downtown Dallas, the deeply private Drederick Irving was in a good place and in a good head space as he talked to a reporter he had met while bonding over fatherhoold in the tunnels of the American Airlines Center a few nights earlier.

The situation surrounding the Dallas Mavericks and Drederick’s son Kyrie, who were down 3-0 to the Boston Celtics and seemingly on the verge of being swept out of the NBA Finals in four games, was not ideal.

But on this Father’s Day weekend, there was no conflating or nothing conflicting for the spiritual elder Irving, who counts it all as joy and long believed things happen for a purpose.

Especially on Father’s Day weekend.

A journey that began when Drederick’s own NBA dreams ended following a standout career at Boston University and included the sudden death of Kyrie’s mother when his son was 4, becoming a single parent and sole caretaker of two small children, somehow walking out of the twin towers on 9-11 and watching his son go from NBA superstar to star-crossed and back to being appreciated again can’t be muted anyway.

It’s a story worthy of being extolled and embraced.

Certainly, Kyrie did just that in early June when the Mavs superstar guard honored his dad with a signature shoe.

Irving signed with Chinese brand ANTA in September 2023 and launched the ANTA KAI 1, part of his own line within the company. He became the first signature athlete at ANTA, making history as it’s the first time a player has signed his own father to a shoe deal.

“It means so much to me because the sneaker is a testament of our journey,” Drederick said. “Just dreaming with Kyrie about ... he used to work out from the park, in the backyard. And just dream about one day him having a signature shoe.

“For him, to sign me as his first signature athlete is like overwhelmingly impressive. I’m just gratified at the gesture. Who gets to sign their father? And there’s a story behind so it means everything to me as a father.”

The stars aligned just right for the Irving family on Friday might as the Mavericks orchestrated a 122-84 rout of the Celtics, fending off elimination with the a 38-point final margin that was the third-biggest in an NBA Finals game.

The Maverick’s win sends the series back to Boston for Game 5 on Monday night, while providing a nice Father’s Day homecoming.

“It is very special man, now that you bring it up,” Kyrie said the Star-Telegram after walking off the interview podium after Friday’s win. “I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was just thinking about getting there. But yeah, it’s gonna be a special Father’s Day weekend for sure. I’m excited.”

Boston is where it all began

Boston is where it all began for the Irving family.

After a standout prep career at Stevenson High School in the Bronx, Drederick became an All-American at Boston University where he set school records for points, field goals and 3-point field goals. It’s also where his college sweetheart, a volleyball player named Elizabeth, who would become his wife.

Dredericks’s own NBA dreams died after he was cut by the Celtics followed a free-agent tryout.

He would go on to play basketball in Australia, where Kyrie was born in 1992. But tragedy struck four years later when Elizabeth died at the age of 29 after contracting sepsis while in the hospital.

And dad was forced to be a full-time single parent of two, including Kyrie’s sister Asia.

It’s simply something you can’t prepare yourself for.

“When you’re in it, you don’t really know how tough it really is,” Drederick said. ”But when I reflect though, it was tough because it was it was a dark place. I was young, I had two babies, essentially. And just living with no support out of Seattle.

“But once we migrated back to New York, that’s where I get the support. of my family. But it was it was different just going through it all. Being so young and and I’m still evolving as a young man. Now I have two kids, two babies essentially. And have to provide and protect and love. So it was a lot of pressure on me as a youngster. When you’re in it, you don’t see the pressure. But there was a lot of pressure. And I say that with conviction.”

Drederick, who took a job on Wall Street, got by because of the support from his family and he leaned on the teachings of his mother.

“I think this was preordained in a sense because the transition into being a single dad wasn’t as hard as people think because of how my mom raised me,” Drederick said. “She taught me how to cook and clean. So it just kind of translated like relatively easily. But still just the emotional impact it had on me as as a youngster with two babies. And then you know, being new a new job on Wall Street in finance.”

Surviving 9/11

Drederick always felt he had someone watching over him, protecting him and his two children. It was his mom. It was Elizabeth. It was God.

That is the only way he can explain his ability to survive the crazy day of Sept. 11, 2001.

Drederick was a financial broker for years. He worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center but changed jobs eight months before the terrorists struck.

He joined Garvan Securities on the 40th floor of the same building, but quit three weeks later.

Drederick was hired Thomson Reuters at 3 Financial Square where he still had go through the World Trade Center buildings to get work.

He still gets choked up thinking about it all.

“It’s surreal to me. It was so surreal ... because I was one of the first ones to make it out of the building,” Drederick said. “And I was literally dodging debris falling from the World Trade Center. As I’m running, I’m thinking thinking about my kids, but I felt protected. I felt protected during 911, like the big man above just had my back. Like literally, he had my back. I just felt protected. “

“I made it out and couldn’t reach my kids. So you know, that disconnect there was definitely like a nasty anxiety. But they found out that I was good and I made it out. So again, that goes back to that big man above protecting me and the angels like my mom and Liz, Kyrie’s mother. It was tough, but you know. God is God is good. God is real. And I am where I am now.”

Drederick lost a lot of friends a lot of friends that day and can’t help but think about what would have happened to his kids he didn’t make it out. They had a already lost their mom and now this

“I love my kids so much, man. I don’t even know if I can get closer than I feel we already are,” Drederick said. “But you’re compelled to put everything in perspective, like how precious precious life is and family is and support and just having a parent. Because when you really think about it, they could have lost me and then what. It gives you an appreciation that I was fortunate to make it out. Unfortunate for all the other ones who lost their lives during 9/11.

“And I was wanting to make it out. So...yeah.”

Learning how to be a dad

There is no book on raising children in a perfect situation.

And there is certainly no blueprint on doing it as a single father following the untimely death of your wife.

Add in an absent father of your own Drederick’s road map to success was simply fly by night.

“My dad was sporadically in my life when I was a youngster,” Drederick said. “But as I got older, he and I kind of rekindled our paths or resolved a lot of our differences. Now we’re super close. But growing up. He was sporadic.”

It motivated Drederick to make sure he was present and accounted for whenever he had kids.

“I don’t mean this as a disrespect to my father,” Drederick said. “I just knew his absence is what motivated me to be a father that I am. Or to take on the responsibilities that I’ve decided to take on as a father.”

He has provided a nice blue print for his son to follow.

Kyrie, who has two children with wife Marlene Wilkerson, said he couldn’t ask for a better father and role model.

“He has taught me about sacrifice and teaching and also understanding that parenting comes with no handbook,” Kyrie said. “There is perfect parent out there. It’s all day by day process, especially when you have a wife around or if you don’t have a wife or you have a family that you’re trying to create. It’s all about being patient, especially being the man of the house.”

The making of Kyrie

If truth be told, Drederick didn’t set out to turn Kyrie into a basketball prodigy.

His initial goal was something simple and basic that all dad’s can relate to.

“I was just raising Kyrie to get a scholarship. Right. That was my goal,” Drederick said. “Kyrie took it and he took the dream and just took it to another level. This is all Kyrie. I had the vision but he put in the work. And he just followed the blueprint. And he trusted me and believed.

But honestly, I just wanted Kyrie to get a scholarship. I knew I was going to have to pay for my daughter’s college tuition, but I could save money on Kyrie. That was my vision.”

It was a vision, not a dream, that was born of something special in Kyrie from an early age.

He was a natural.

“Kyrie has always gravitated towards the game of basketball since he was a baby,” Drederick said. “He’s dribbling at like 13 months. He was just doing phenomenal stuff at relatively early ages. And I’m like, ‘maybe I have something special here’. You never know.”

Kyrie’s special skills were nurtured and cultivated by the master teacher.

He is a magician with the ball in his hands. His ability to dribble and finish with either hand through tight creases has some believing he has greatest bag in the history of the NBA.

“My bag wasn’t as ... well first of all, when I was playing we weren’t even allowed to do the stuff Kyrie does because it was just different era,” Drederick said. “That was perceived to be you know, flashy and showing off. But yeah I could dribble. I could do a lot of stuff Kyrie can do. We did a lot of drills together. But his handle was just another level and I’ve seen that guy work at it.

“I don’t know if with the exception of James Brown, I don’t know who is the hardest working entertainer out there. You can relate that statement, you know what I mean.”

A fresh start in Dallas

James Brown, the God Father of Soul known for his singing, dancing and sweating, won his first Grammy Award for the song “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.”

The reference is fitting for Kyrie, who is enjoying a nice second act in Dallas after experiencing all the highs and lows of being a basketball superstar, winning an NBA title with Cleveland Cavaliers and seeing his life play out seeing his every move play out in the public since he was first overall pick in 2011 NBA Draft.

His early credentials are impeccable.

It was Kyrie who made the game-winning three-point field goal to complete the Cavaliers’ historic comeback from 3-1 deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors and win the NBA title in 2016.

After another Finals appearance in 2017, Kyrie requested a trade and was sent to the Celtics in what appeared to be a perfect homecoming, considering his dad’s history.

But two disappointing seasons in Boston, where he labeled as a bad teammate, resulted in him signing with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent in 2019.

Kyrie credits part of the missteps in Boston on being in the midst of his own spiritual journey that included him diving deeper into his heritage and that of his parents plus the natural maturation process even young man goes through.

But things seemingly got worse for Kyrie with the Nets during a four-year stint that included injury-riddled seasons, a suspension for posting a link to a documentary with anti-semitic views and missing games due to his stance on the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic.

Watching his son be characterized as a menace because of his beliefs took a toll on Drederick as well. The idea that Kyrie wasn’t allowed to make mistakes and grow like everyone else in the world simply made no sense.

How dare someone say he should retire in the prime of his career because of his beliefs.

“I’ve always kind of intimated this simple fact is that Kyrie is misunderstood,” Dredrick said. “I think, in my eyes, because I’m his father and I see him quite frequently. I’ve always seen the growth. I’ve always appreciated Kyrie, just who he is as a young man. It’s just unfortunate that he’s been missed, a lot of his actions have been misconstrued on the court and off the court because of because of the off court actions. But you see it as as growth.

So dad has a hard time buying into the narrative of what Kyrie is doing with the Mavericks and his return to the finals as a measure of redemption. It’s simply growth.

“A lot of people see it as giving him his flowers,” Drederick said. “But I’ve always given Kyrie his flowers because Im his father one, but he’s a human being first and foremost. I think that’s the one element that people forget. And we all make mistakes. But his mistakes are magnified. It’s unfortunate that he has to mature in the public’s eye as any entertainer. Their mistakes gotta be scrutinized. But we can’t forget the fact that they’re human beings, and we’ve all made mistakes.”

Dallas proved to be the perfect fit

When Kyrie requested a trade from the Nets, no one saw him coming to Dallas a long-term proposition.

And there was no way to predict that this team, which didn’t even make the play-in tournament a year ago, would reach the NBA Finals.

Initially, it was about getting out of Brooklyn and finding a fresh start.

That the Mavericks welcomed him with open arms made the transition easy.

“I’m extremely proud of him the way the year has evolved in respect to his play on the court and just how the organization, the Dallas organization, how they embraced him with fair value,” Drederick said. “There were no preconceived notions. It was with open arms and it just happened organically. And now we are where we are. I’m just like, beyond words, proud of him. Because he was able to persevere despite what he’s been subjected to past years and that’s a true testament to who he is as a person.”

Drederick said he didn’t know much about Dallas before arrival. He knew general manager Nico Harrison from his days as a Nike executive. He knew coach Jason Kidd. And he knew they a young superstar in Luka Doncic.

“I didn’t know much,” Drederick said. “But I had to lean on the big man above. He is the one who pointed us to Dallas. So we followed his lead. We just knew that our run and New York had come to a head and it was time for a scenery change.”

His teammates have embraced Kyrie as a leader. The city has embraced him.

Kyrie is accepting it all with open arms.

“I feel like it’s a great chapter being written right now, I’m enjoying every step of the way,” Kyrie said. “I’m enjoying the hot weather right now. I’m enjoying the Dallas community and the fans here. I’ve talked about how I felt embraced, but I think it goes a little deeper than that. “It’s really helped me grow as a human being and find my peace out here.”

Kyrie and the Mavericks are heading back to Boston, still facing an uphill journey, down 3-1 the series.

Of course, Kyrie was instrumental in pulling off a similar miracle before.

Whether it plays out the same way remains to be determined, Dad remains proud of his son.

“For both teams to be playing, competing in the NBA Finals, is such an achievement right? There can only be one winner right to prevail,” Drederick said. “Kyrie has had a beautiful season, the Dallas Mavericks they have had a beautiful season. I’m just so proud of the organization, Kyrie, the team, the fans. It’s been a huge run. Not sure if this was predicted from anyone. So we got to be grateful.”

And at peace.