NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving wants to play for Australia but red tape presents obstacle

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Kyrie Irving's impressive basketball skills have left the world's top defences stunned, but the Dallas Mavericks guard still has to clear a few hurdles before he can wear the green and gold on the international stage.

In San Francisco over the weekend he is looking at how to change his allegiance back to his country of birth.

“We're in the middle of sorting it out at the moment, just trying to work out what's the best way for me to be eligible,” he said.

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Irving was born in Melbourne in 1992, during his dad's stint with the Bulleen Bullets in the South East Australian Basketball League. The family stayed on in Australia until he was two, then headed back to the States.

The 32-year-old Kyrie was the NBA's first draft pick back in 2011 and played for the Australian national team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Despite his impressive All-Star form for the Mavericks, he has fallen out of favour with US authorities in recent years and was overlooked for the Olympic team that claimed gold in Paris last year.

The rules of the international basketball governing body Fiba don't allow a player who's played for one country as an adult to then play for another country, unless the sport's secretary general gives them permission.

Irving said "there's a fair bit of paperwork" before he could wear the green and gold, and revealed that Team USA needs to decide whether or not they will allow such a change.

"Fair dinkum, if I could be an Aussie at some stage in my career, play for the Australian team, that'd be as good as it gets," he said.

The Fiba rules are set up to keep the integrity of international competition safe and stop people from changing their national team just because they feel like it.

Only in "exceptional circumstances" will Fiba's secretary general – currently Andreas Zagklis – give the green light for a change, and only if it's in "the best interests of basketball", according to Fiba's rules. Factors to consider include whether it'll have an impact on the competitive balance of international competitions, and what's been happening with the country beforehand.

Another former USA team player, Klay Thompson – and a teammate of Irving in Dallas – was in talks last year about representing the Bahamas, the country of his father's birth. His attempts were unsuccessful.

Irving's case looks stronger than Thompson's given he was born in Australia, however there's no promise Irving would feature in the Boomers' plans in the coming years. The head coach role remains vacant since Brian Goorjian stepped down after the Paris Games.

By the time the Olympics are held in LA in 2028, Irving would be 36. Since then, Australia's backcourt has been revamped and is now led by 21-year-old Dyson Daniels, 22-year-old Josh Giddey and Dante Exum, who's 29 and a teammate of Irving's in Dallas.

Basketball Australia has chosen not to comment on Irving's situation.