Kyrie Irving is closer to the end of his career than the start. It's wild how fast time can fly, and Kyrie Irving has already had an incredible basketball career, even if he hopes to add more to his legacy.

Irving's future with the Mavericks is still hanging in the balance. While new team president Masai Ujiri has made it very clear that they want to keep him, if they get off to a bad start or aren't that competitive midway through the season, it would benefit them more to trade him and get some future draft capital back, something they don't have a lot of.

While Irving still loves the game of basketball, he doesn't see himself playing for too much longer.

"You have social media and gambling, which is running rampant, and it's not the same NBA that I fell in love with as a kid, and I'm very much aware of that," Irving said when asked about his plans for retirement.

"And I don’t say that as a negative thing, it’s just when I came in, we were not doing like tipping and gambling meetings. You know, kind of talking about these things that are going on on social media and mental health was like this foreign subject …like nobody ever talked about it in 2011, so I think that the game has changed; it’s become less human, it’s more robotic. And I think my next few years, I kind of look at it as like, do I really love that aspect of it? I love the playing, I love the competition, but do I love all the hoopla that goes into it?"

While players like LeBron James and Stephen Curry are extending their playing days into their late 30s and early 40s, Irving doesn't see himself playing that long.

“I love those guys, but I don’t share the same sentiments as them in certain cases,” he said. “ I’ve been able to put the NBA in perspective coming in at 19, (and playing) 16 years. I don’t look at it as comparing my years to other people, but just how much love I still have for it and it’s not just for basketball...

“I’m fully aware of just my position and purpose and figure and just playing in the NBA. So basketball is an eternal flame. It always will, but I don’t see myself playing in the NBA at 42, 43.”

Irving came in as a rookie in 2011 and has made the All-Star Game nine times, won a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, hitting one of the biggest shots in NBA history, and played in three other NBA Finals.

He has had as good a career as anyone could ask for, but there is a lot more going on with the NBA than when Irving entered. Jerseys have sponsorship patches, gambling is all over the place (as he mentioned), and when money gets involved like that, it can take away a lot of the love that goes into the game.

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