NBA Rumors: How (and when) Spencer Dinwiddie sold Kyrie Irving on Nets

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Leave it to Spencer Dinwiddie to play a leading role in the Brooklyn Nets landing two NBA superstars.

That's not a misprint. Dinwiddie, who at this time three years ago was toiling away in the G-League, was "at the forefront" of Brooklyn's "monthslong push" to convince ex-Boston Celtics guard Kyrie Irving to sign with the Nets in free agency this summer and bring good friend Kevin Durant with him, The New York Times' Marc Stein reported Tuesday.

How did Dinwiddie wind up with this franchise-defining task? According to Stein, his recruitment of Irving began (ironically enough) on the Celtics' home turf.

Irving's "fondness for the Nets," Stein wrote, "stems in part" from Dinwiddie's "hard sell of the franchise" while the two were classmates in a Harvard Business School course for athletes called "Crossover into Business."

Per Stein, Dinwiddie and Irving "began building the bond that led to a regular dialogue" over the course of the semester, which began on Harvard's campus in September 2018 and continued remotely throughout the fall.

(Here's an Instagram photo from the course's professor, Anita Elberse, which features both Irving and Dinwiddie wearing gray hoodies.)

Dinwiddie, who averaged a career-high 16.8 points per game last season, apparently kept regular tabs on Irving and this past Sunday joined "top team officials" as the Nets completed their coup by getting both Irving and Durant to commit to four-year contracts.

The 26-year-old guard obviously wasn't alone in the Kyrie recruiting effort -- Irving, a native of West Orange, N.J., reportedly had a desire to return "home" and was impressed by Brooklyn's infrastructure -- but apparently he deserves some credit for planting the Nets seed in Irving's mind.

The timing here is also notable, as Irving told a crowd of Celtics fans in October 2018 he planned on re-signing with Boston long-term. But it seems the All-Star guard was keeping his options open, at first just considering the Nets before deciding to form a mini-superteam with KD in Brooklyn.

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