Kyrie Irving’s Christmas Golf Carts: A Gift, a Message, and a Culture Move
Every NBA locker room runs on its own quiet economy: trust, routine, and the feeling that you’re in it together. Around the holidays, that economy gets loud. The gifts tell stories. And this year, Kyrie Irving told his story with golf carts.
On December 17, Bleacher Report highlighted a team video showing Irving gifting Dallas Mavericks teammates custom golf carts. Players like Cooper Flagg and Klay Thompson were filmed taking the carts for test drives, with Irving telling them the carts would be shipped to their homes.
It’s funny on the surface, grown men laughing while whipping around a parking lot, but the subtext is serious.
 
View this post on Instagram
;
Why this kind of gift lands
A normal gift says, I thought of you. A customized gift says, I see you. And a gift that the whole roster receives says something even louder: nobody gets left out.
That’s not a small thing in pro sports. Teams fracture when roles feel unequal or when the tone becomes transactional. A shared surprise resets the tone. It gives players something to laugh about that has nothing to do with minutes or stats.
Team culture is built in moments like this
The most valuable part of the clip is not the product. It’s the reaction. Teammates testing the carts, talking trash, smiling like kids. Those are micro-deposits into chemistry.
Front offices spend millions trying to buy “culture” through personnel moves. Players build it through gestures, especially when those gestures are public enough to be remembered but personal enough to feel real.
The brand layer that nobody has to say out loud
Kyrie’s public persona is complicated, and it’s always been bigger than basketball. That’s precisely why these moments matter. A holiday gift doesn’t erase controversy, and it doesn’t need to. What it does is widen the image: teammate, connector, tone-setter.
In a league where narrative can outpace reality, the easiest way to reclaim the story is behavior. Not statements. Behavior.
What it signals inside the building
A gift like this also carries a message to the younger guys: you belong here. You’re part of the group. That matters for rookies and new additions, especially in a season that inevitably includes stress.
And it signals something to veterans too: the locker room is being protected. Someone is investing in cohesion, not just performance.
The VeriBeat takeaway
Holiday gifts in sports are never just gifts. They’re culture artifacts. Kyrie’s golf carts are funny, sure. But they’re also a reminder that leadership can be loud without being speechy.
If you’re trying to build a team, on the court or in a company, the best move is often the simplest: do something shared, do it with care, and make it impossible for people to forget how it felt.
Leave a comment