Kyrie Irving talks 3-0 Series Lead vs Timberwolves, FULL Postgame Interview 🎤

Kyrie Irving talks 3-0 Series Lead vs Timberwolves, FULL Postgame Interview 🎤

my [Music] language Kyrie we talked to Luca earlier about uh your performance in the fourth quarter he said you were born for these moments called you Mr fourth quarter so for one I guess wasn’t mean to hear your teammate talk about you like that and the end the four quarters just something as simple does a does a switch flip off to you like why are you so comfortable in these moments I appreciate his words lcas funny man uh I feel like we’re both born for this if you if you ask me but um and it’s just basketball man it’s uh you know you got to give the game what it needs at times and I felt like in that fourth quarter we uh had a good run going and those guys were um you know pressuring the basketball up the floor so when we got into the paint it felt like we just had to convert get a few stops we were playing um back and forth game for a little bit with them um but I had confidence in our guys when uh we got stops in that fourth quarter and we got on transition we just had to continue to push and get some easy ones and then um down the stretch that’s that’s where we make our money man um you know since Allstar break we’ve been up there with some of the top teams in the league with finishing clutch games we have a great clutch record uh so I I think we have that Poise now and um you know we’re showcasing just our skill sets out there that a lot of teams have to guard the depth that we have a lot of teams have to guard um each one of us and you got to pick your poison so in the fourth quarter when I’m being aggressive I know it opens opportunities not only for myself but for my teammates Kyrie you’re known for being a historian of the game right here um thank you I’m one of few I’m one of the few that are actually a historian of the game at my age yeah go ahead with with teams being 154 and0 undefeated when they go up 3 0 just what’s the significance of that stat and how does that feel just being three in this position right now it means absolutely nothing right now um you know that’s not even something I’m thinking about um you know going into game four is still 0 um and that’s the type of motivation and mentality we have in that locker room it’s not just me uh we feel like the job isn’t finished and we’re going against one of the greatest teams in the world you know they still have the capability of of beating us on any given night and we have to treat him like that so you know it’s a time to celebrate after the game but once I get up here it’s on to the next thing and thinking about my recovery work putting my kids to bed watching film and uh just getting ready for this war Man U warlike um battle that’s going to come uh next game you know so got to appreciate where we are but at the same time don’t take it for granted and don’t take the other team for granted because they’re pretty sure they’re going to watch this interview they’re going to study all our habits and see if we uh you know lay down a little bit and get comfortable I don’t want to get comfortable at all I want to push forward even more so and have our best game game four um and live with the results after that ktie in the fourth quarter you don’t don’t show any emotion you stay focused all all the time and how do you manage to stay in the song for so long yeah no thanks for for thanks for talking thanks for speaking I know you giving your best um yeah now the fourth quarter is uh you know it’s just you get to a chance to see your competitor’s emotions you get to see what they’re made of uh you get to see the plays that they run in the clutch and uh it’s just a chess match so uh I think that’s the that’s the approach I take uh throughout most of the game but especially in the fourth quarter uh when the game is in the balance they’re taking the lead we’re taking the lead there’s a few foul calls that are called that slows the game down um but you just got to pay attention to all the little things and um you know I feel like you put yourself in a great position and uh also when we come into our huddles whether we’re on the floor or whether in timeouts we are constantly communicating and we’re constantly giving each other that reassurance and confidence that you know we’re a good team too and we got to finish the job K you mentioned Luke is also born for those clutch situations what what do you see that makes him uniquely suited to be a closer uh you know especially at this stage uh I mean I think he’s shown it over and over um whether he’s made him or missed him he’s taken him and that’s the confidence you need uh to have especially in that clutch sit in those clutch situations you got to have that confidence and you can’t be thinking about anything else other than your mechanics and your fundamentals and um you know putting us up ahead uh to give us that separation to give us that peace of mind uh so you know when he’s getting it going and he’s making threes or he’s driving to the basket he’s getting to the free throw line and it creates opportunities for all of us and um when he gets it out in transition he starts going and we see Luca get up down and get into his Luca Sprint that makes a big deal for us and uh makes a big difference for us and uh makes my job a lot easier especially when I’m coming to transition and those guys are a little tired so um again we don’t play your turn my turn but when we get those opportunities to push in transition or get Luca ISO on the wing or at the top of the key it’s it’s our time to take advantage of it Kyrie over here um y’all have gone up against you know two of the top three seeds in this playoffs um you guys look like you’re the favorite though like the way you’re playing just so much confidence what goes into that mentality what what exactly are you just a confident mentality despite being an underdog in a lot of the series that you’ve played uh I mean if if you look at our our regular season I don’t think it tells the whole truth of who we are you know and or who we were I felt like um you know the second half of the Season everybody got to you know kind of see what we were made of uh you know but if you look at the beginning of the season I mean we were on Pace for having a great season still um you know I think we would have finished one through three that’s playing hypotheticals you know if I don’t get injured um or if luuk is not laboring a little bit or if we don’t go through kind of those big transitions uh that we had in the season where we had lineup changes um you know so I I I take all that into account when I look at who we are now uh We’ve grown over the past few months uh this has been a journey for us and um you know I like to think that you know being in fifth uh took some pressure off of us uh coming into this postseason you know everybody was looking at the top three seeds so I felt like we We snuck in there a little bit and surprised a few teams but uh those guys in the locker room have always had that utmost confidence in one another and uh when we started getting into some tough games and we were able to uh battle it out and come out with some wins I think that uh really sparked a new confidence for us you know guys making tough shots towards the end I mean I I I think you guys remember that Cleveland game right we uh you know now it’s in Cleveland history it had to be against me but I look at about teammates and I’m telling them I’m like I was so pissed we lost there and um but I want them to remember that you know what that felt like where we took our our foot off the gas ped a little bit and then Max Cruz hits a 59f footer you know breaks our heart then we go and lose in Indiana so some of those moments I think that could have broken our team really made us who we are and I’m grateful for these guys just continuing to battle and our coaching staff getting us prepared and upper management doing a great job just feeding us confidence so it’s a full team effort hi re um hi you been in the game quite a while you’ve been around great players uh great teams and just at this point in your career your kids yeah yeah go ahead are they good yeah they’re good okay uh at this point in your career and just honestly in your life what do the Dallas Mavericks mean to you from the coaching staff to the guys that you get to call teammates uh I feel like it’s a a great chapter that’s being written right now um you know I’m enjoying every step of the way I’m not taking anything for granted I’m enjoying the hot weather right now I’m enjoying the Dallas community and the fans here and um you know we talked about this early in the season just how much I felt embraced um but I think it’s going a little deeper than that it’s it’s really helped me grow as a human being and find my peace out here it’s good to breathe fresh air get outside you know it’s seasonal depression is real when you’re growing up and up north I spent 12 years in the Eastern Conference you know in three cold cities that deal with Four Seasons so you come out here and you’re able to get outside and ground yourself a little bit more and spend some time with your family watch your kids run out outside and wife’s happy you know they know what they say about a happy wife happy life you know so I I don’t take those things for granted um you know it comes with it and we’re laughing about it but on a serious note uh I’ve just been able to grow and uh understand that uh all these things don’t um happen without a lot of the work that goes unseen you know just doing the inner work doing the spiritual work and enjoying the game and putting that in perspective as well you know feels good gyri over here to your right thank you for your time this evening we’ve talked to you about the being a leader on this team right a multitude of times so it’s not a new conversation I love it I love it how do you navigate the complexities of being a leader because we know it doesn’t always look the same way every day how do you navigate knowing when to push when to pull and everything in between I mean that I mean we throw around that word leader and Leadership so often especially in this uh industry uh you know I I I genuinely feel like uh you know leaders are chosen sometimes but uh leaders emerge out of the group too and um you know when you get that uh role or people start calling you a great leader or start asking you about leadership you got to understand that when you’re in that position failure is going to be part of it um making mistakes is going to be part of it and um you know almost like embarrassment is part of it too because sometimes you’re going to get it right and sometimes you’re going to get it completely wrong so uh I think I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve just accepted it you know this is what comes with it um you know the the thing that I always think about uh when I am leading the guys with some of the other leaders in the team is just uh protecting them and uh allowing them to fail too and uh feel what pain feels like too you know so I think all these words that were throwing out are just words but when you’re in the middle of it um and you got to figure it out and you don’t have it all figured out that’s when you’re that’s when you’re made you know right there so it feels good that I have uh the support system though I’m not doing this alone it’s never a lonely job I used to think leadership was just about me me me and taking on the the brunt of all the responsibility no that’s not even close to it you know you got good people around good family good friends and they love you in Unconditionally anything’s possible in this world kry Harry it feels like uh since since especially since the since the trade deadline that you guys keep finding new ways to win you know you learn to win with defense you learn to win with when players are out the first two games of the series you know you learned to win even when you weren’t hitting threes you know tonight you guys lost you know didn’t have Derrik Lively for for a lot of the game uh you know Jason kid said it was a was going to be about shot making down the stretch is there a through line that you know runs through all of this you know ability to keep finding different ways to win even if it looks very different than the a through line what do you mean a through line or a theme like what what what’s the cause yeah in this in this roster you got you got some yeah mean you got some uh as we say we got some B mfers in that locker room man we we got some uh guys that don’t care about doing the Dirty Work and uh doing the little things for us to win and have always preached selflessness in our locker room uh and this was before I even got here so when I got here the culture was still being B uh you know birth a little bit and um you know you look at their success before I got here Western Conference finals and then me and LCA get together and you know we’re trying to figure out our Tandem and then we come into the season um I think aot lot of us took that as motivation and um wanted to be in the best shape possible and I think that’s what’s allowing us to be in the situation or the circumstance we’re in now we’re in great shape we’re conditioned mentally and emotionally and uh you know we’ve worked on our strategy since the All-Star break and I think that’s helped uh we’ve built trust and uh every day that we go into practice we actually hoop against each other we play um not a lot of teams still practice hard you know so I think we’re very old school in our mental and we’re led by Jason kid he reminds us that you know these the older eras that came before you man just go study them go go watch them go study some of the greatest to play and not the greatest to ever score but the greatest to play games you know the Robert ories the Scotty pippens of the world go study some of the guys that don’t get recognized as the main guy you know what I mean and once you play that uh role and you get used to it I think winning becomes the most important thing so we just want to be remembered as a great team and not just great performers and individual accolades you know that come but we just want to be remembered as a great team that put defense first Kyrie I was asking Jason about kind of what makes you and luuka work so well one of the things he said was your willingness to be kind of a second to be a 1B uh on this team is that a role that you feel like you’ve always been he said a 1B a 1B well is that a role You’ you’ve always been you know comfortable accepting or is experience age all you’ve gone through made fitting into this role a little bit easier to be honest with you I I don’t care um at this point in my life being a 1A or 1B or being seen as a second option I I leave that for um you know the words that everybody throws around I I just look at it as just winning basketball doing the little things What It Takes man and um you know ever since I was young I’ve always felt like I’m one of the best in the world because I’m able to play with other great players I don’t ask for the ball I don’t demand it I will play defense I will do all the other things that don’t show up in the stat sheet and that’s always what I’ve wanted to be remembered as um um everything else that people have thrown on my career has been up to them and what they’ve seen and I have to take that you know I have to take that fair criticism but how I feel as a person when I go out there is a confident mfer that will play with the best of the world I don’t care who’s out there it could be will MJ Steph Braun you know whatever team and I feel like you know if I get a few of my friends from around the way I you know hey we might not have a chance that day but you know I think uh just enjoying the game and the competition is what comes with it so that’s really what I’m getting at just enjoying the competition and enjoying uh you know the failures and the success that come into right here Kyrie uh last question or another question I appreciate it last question oh my bad I apologize about that so of course you’re a student at a game when it comes to history how do you just take in you know the accolades when people talk about you and Luke as possibly the greatest back court in NBA history thank you who said that it’s a lot of talk about that it’s a lot of talk that you and Luke are possibly the you know greatest back cour in NBA history I mean it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t win a ring together you know and I and I I say that um very responsibly too you know not saying that we aren’t great now um but there are other back courts that are more deserving right now for that recognition and um I think once we put a good run together and we can look back on and reflect on it then that’ll be our time but right now I want to show a lot of respect to the guys that have come before us and have actually did it um and our time will come you know we just got to keep putting in the work and continue to feed each other that positive affirmation energy and we’ll go from there man but right now we’re just focused on enjoying the moment enjoying how well we’re playing um as a team and you know you’re seeing some special basketball from me and Luca but we wouldn’t be here without our teammates so um fullon Team success man you guys get home safe enjoy Dallas cuz I will

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