GET UP | Tim Legler on NBA Finals Mavs vs Celtics: Kyrie Irving bring “Mamba Mentality” to Boston

GET UP | Tim Legler on NBA Finals Mavs vs Celtics: Kyrie Irving bring “Mamba Mentality” to Boston

this is a special place as a sense of Pride that you have to have to play here I can only imagine if you hung one of those banners up it would be incredible pressure was in my life when I was 13 I leave pressure every day I want to win championship here just being back in this position it’s been a long time coming it’s time to move forward I truly do believe my time is coming something heading back to the NBA finals the drive for Banner number 18 will continue Luca donic and [Applause] Kyrie there is nothing better than the NBA Finals Boston in the way in between our goals we are back boy is this going to be good Celtics have been the best team all year ESPN bet has them as the clear favorite to win this series remarkably it’s the first time since 1986 that the Celtics are favored to win the finals before the series started they were underdogs in ‘ 87 in 2008 when they won in 2010 and a couple years ago against Golden State in 2022 so let’s play America’s favorite game it’s called is that MC nuts so Monica you’ve heard this narrative if people are saying Jon Tatum needs to win Finals MVP to you know make everything to seem worthwhile and everything else to validate his greatness is that mcnut greeny that one is MC nuts for me we continue to move this goal plose when it comes to JT listen his team and Brad Stevens and the Celtics organization have done a great job of constructing a roster that is designed to now get this team over the hump that includes a former or a a former NBA champion that includes Jaylen Brown obviously Derek white if one of those those guys gets into Rhythm or the xfactor as many have talked about chrisa porzingis if one of those guys gets into Rhythm and has a great series and wins that award but JT plays well this is not a thing this is mcnut you agree with that Alan completely agree yeah the only thing that that he can’t do is suck in this final right if he’s bad then that’s going to be a problem but if he plays well and they win a championship winning matters first they didn’t bother Steph Curry until after he won the first one for not winning a Finals MVP I’d like to bookmark this one and come back because as is the case with a lot of things I think there’s some Nuance to this conversation it really depends what standard we’re holding Jason Tatum to and who it is we’re comparing him to so we’ll come back let me do the next one though okay uh mcnut if I said Chris tabs porzingis health is the key to Boston’s chances in this series is that mcnut okay it is not Mech nuts I would like to edit key to xfactor while I do believe that christops porzingis has the ability to make a huge impact on this series and put the Celtics over the top whether he is at full strength or not cannot not be an excuse this is the year where the Celtics have to figure out a way to get that done and to your point greedy a little bit of nuance in that one the Celtics have to get it done Christoph porzingis can’t be an excuse what do you think Al yeah I agree I mean look they were 43 and 14 when he played the season during the regular season but he only played in 40 57 games he had an injury in every month that has always been the concern about him availability he had made it through most of the season but at this point when they need him most he’s got to be on the court now he will be but he’s got to stay on the court they will have a hard time winning without him okay and let me do one more because this Zack low brought this up yesterday and it’s really an interesting thought if someone were to say if Dallas wins this Championship you could put the Kyrie Irving trade right there with the greatest trades in the history of the sport would that be MC nuts so I when we got this one preparing I thought about this and I think when you talk about the return what it cost them to add dollars remember when this went down greeny this was a gamble it was considered a leap of faith H it was like oh how’s this going to work not even because of the off the court stuff but it was also like how’s it going to work in the basketball of it all Kyrie and Luka both need the ball yeah so I I think so like I don’t think this is MC nuts I’m going to get Alan’s take on this in a minute but first let’s hear from Kyrie because of all the the different characters in this soap opera that is about to begin and play out over the course of of the next two and a half weeks his is the most interesting story for sure right I mean if you’re talking about they say I think that was the best uh you not not this regular season but when we played in the playoffs and everyone saw me flip off the birds and kind of lose my a little bit that wasn’t a great reflection of who I am I’m built for these moments uh to be able to handle circumstances like that uh and I’ve been able to grow since then so it’s an interesting way of looking at it I mean you know some people are calling him the robin of this team you know to go alongside of Luca well like most superheroes and Robin is a super hero don’t let anyone tell you otherwise um you know they all have an origin story his origin story is as interesting as any story in the entire NBA what would it be how how would we tell this story if he winds up two and a half weeks from now sitting there holding up that trophy you said it in the teas to the show it’s Redemption I mean that’s really what this is this is like Eminem song Cinderella Man like this is really what has happened with him and we’re all allowed to have our narratives and our conversations about him evolve along with his evolution tion as well as it gets back to the basketball court so yeah there there’s so much for Kyrie to benefit from this and it’s interesting to see how he does in this finals especially on the court in Boston because I truly believe when he says it and you can hear it from the guys in Boston but the players who are still left in Boston mainly Tatum and brown they look to him they have a good relationship they admire him he looks at them same way I don’t think he’s trying to beat the Celtics as much for Redemption I think he’s trying to beat Beat Boston in a much different way if you understand what I mean the fans is what you’re getting at the whole thing media fans the market all of it yeah I that was my thought too and I think one there’s a sound bite where he references the Coliseum right and um trying to win the crowd over is kind of what he says are you not entertaining there you go like he’s obviously he’s not going to win the crowd over but that’s a smart basketball consuming City and town right and fan base and so if he has a series that is leaves them with wow you got to appreciate the basketball of it all then that probably is as close as you will get to winning them over I think if he has them booing loudly he’s winning well right right but like that’s because he that would mean that he is hooping at a high level so this I think this has been really fascinating green I know we’ve talked about it a lot through the series and through the last series I just think we have to hold room for these players to grow both as players and athletes and as men like Kyrie’s just in a different place in his life and it’s clear that’s right and for him to say and I want to bring Dominique foxer into this conversation as well for him to say as he did yesterday you know when when when I gave the the bird to the fans that wasn’t my best moment that like that’s an acknowledgement he just seems like a different person look I don’t pretend to know Kyrie Irving well or even at all so maybe I’m it’s dangerous for me to just make a bunch of assumptions based on the things we see but he’s been so famous for so long that you can’t help but have your impressions and he just seems like an entirely different person now than he has been for so much of the time that he has been in the spotlight Dominique what do you think of all this well first of all I appreciate Han with those um Gladiator and Eminem those dated ass references are making me feel young I love it but also as for Kyrie and the Mavs I gotta say that if they win the title this year if they win the title this year it’ll be one of the most unexpected championship teams in a long time and it also will do what you guys are saying it’ll be a makeover for his um his legacy we won’t think about the the Brooklyn V and all the issues that he had there nearly in the same way we’ll look at Kyrie as Redemption story because we love to build people up tear them down and build them back up again but in this case he’s doing a lot to give us reason to believe in him and and celebrate him so it’s been a fun run but the shocking thing to me is that no there’s no way the beginning of the playoffs when they signed when they traded for Kyrie most of us thought it was a bad trade when they signed Kyrie we’re like it’s not going to work then they made those trades for Gafford and uh and um Washington and no one’s like oh this is a difference made even when they beat the number one seed in the west people are still picking the Minnesota temper wolves over them and they’re just in a great story and a great situation and it’ll be fun to see what how it plays out in the finals Nick not everybody not everybody and Tim legler was first I jumped on that badw quick and by the way Eminem just dropped a new album so I think I’m current when it comes to an Eminem reference thank you very much but I I again when you look at what they’ve become it we’ve talked already about the environment that they have also built there in Dallas that has all also allowed Kyrie Irving to get back to best but I’m looking Nick in your notes I’m looking at at this sentence this would be the most unexpected champion in modern NBA history and at first a statement that large you start to think well could it possibly be true but when you think about this is a team that was fined at the end of last season for tanking its way out of the playoffs $750,000 K Irving is a player that nobody want it’s an overstatement people did not want people were not lining up grab him there were questions about about this sounds crazy now about Luca Don’s dedication to it right about whether he’s in the shape he needs to be in those existed that happened that was whether you could have another star play with him there’s talk about other players who had a hard time with Luca because he dominated the ball so much and the West being as good as it is so Nique I think you could support that that this would be about as surprising a champion as we’ve seen in a long time I I don’t know who would knock them off I think the the Raptors up there but once the Warriors started have all those injuries it was different I think the Pistons when they knocked off the Lakers was a kind of a surprising one but uh off the top of my head I’m not sure that I could think of anyone else who would be nearly as surprising I mean even as recent as the beginning of the Conference Finals I didn’t feel like people were giving the uh Dallas Maverick the respect that they’ve earned right now if we were to go back to just specifically the Pistons beating the team that had Shaq and Kobe and Gary pton and Carl Malone that was a massive upset more recently than that I literally am just calling up all of the Championships to see if there’s something that I’m not thinking of I don’t I can’t think of one I I can’t think of one off the top of my head that would have been as much a surprise if you go back a year ago today if I said to you Monica the Dallas Mavericks are going to win next year’s NBA championship you would have laughed you would have made that eye roll I don’t like green all right whatever you say you’re clearly on one today you possibly the last time Dallas won their Champion I think I what I was thinking because that was the beginning of the heatles and that whole thing and then they they turned that the tables on that champion year but then that goes to what we continue to say how difficult it is in year one for things to happen and I think in this Arc you guys you can’t leave out the fact that this was a team that tanked last season and so there is a different appreciation for the opportunity to win not just with Kyrie and Luca but even with the guys that they rescued for programs that are string they tank to get the to keep a pick that became Derek Lively who is a huge piece and reason why they are where they are if only we had someone sitting in the room who could do some research on this for us hey hambo I need to know the last time an NBA championship team before this season began was a greater long shot than what the Dallas Mavericks were this year no to you as we go in the meantime our featured June lineup for for spee fore [Music] First Blood swap poison you have been defeated an enemy has been defeated an enemy has been defeated feel it you have been [Music] defeated poon The Purge you get over here 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GET UP | Tim Legler on NBA Finals Mavs vs Celtics: Kyrie Irving bring “Mamba Mentality forever” to Boston