Former Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving changed his management team in March of last year when he hired his stepmother Shetellia Riley Irving to function as his agent, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. According to the report, Shetellia Riley Irving is now the only Black woman representing an active NBA player.
“Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has hired Shetellia Riley Irving as his new agent. Shetellia Riley Irving is believed to currently be the only Black woman representing an active NBA player,” Charania tweeted.
Kyrie Irving was moved from the Brooklyn Nets to the Dallas Mavericks in February of this year, and it has now been claimed that he will remain with the Mavericks. According to the Dallas Morning News, the 31-year-old All-Star has agreed to a three-year, $126 million contract with a player option for the 2025-26 season.
Kyrie Irving and his stepmother Shetellia Irving had planned to speak with other organizations but decided that “Dallas would be our place,” according to Bill Reiter of CBS Sports.According to reporter Charania, Shetellia Irving will be the first Black woman to negotiate and sign an NBA contract. Details of the agreement have yet to be confirmed because NBA regulations prohibit teams and players from officially signing and announcing new contracts until the free agency ban is lifted, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Kyrie Irving was previously managed by Roc Nation and Jeff Wechsler before appointing his mother as his agent. He first signed with Roc Nation in 2019, after parting ways with his previous agent, Jeff Wechsler. Kyrie Irving, one of the unvaccinated players, set aside $1.5 million in July 2020 to support WNBA players who chose not to play the rest of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic or to pursue social justice activities. He also paid off the tuition of nine graduating students at Lincoln University, an HBCU in Pennsylvania, on December 10, that year.
Kyrie Irving also gave $323,000 to Feeding America to assist supply meals to people affected by COVID-19, and he collaborated with City Harvest to donate 250,000 meals across the New York area to help vulnerable groups acquire food.
Only two years ago, it was reported that he purchased a home for the family of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a Minneapolis cop was caught kneeling on his neck for several minutes despite his pleas that he couldn’t breathe.