FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie Irving is Luka’s best teammate”- Stephen A. breaks Mavs vs Celtics in NBA Finals

FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie Irving is Luka’s best teammate”- Stephen A. breaks Mavs vs Celtics in NBA Finals

but Wendy how about it at the start of the playoffs certainly seemed improbable these fifth seated Mavericks would be here playing for the Larry O’Brien Trophy and yet here we are what do you make of the run that they’re on to get to this point well they’re a fake number five seed to be honest with you because if you go back and look since February the two best teams in the NBA straight down the line in so many categories including record which is kind of important have been the Celtics and the Mavericks and they’ve blitzed through this postseason by being awesome on the road you don’t Wi on the road without star players and defense that was their formula in this series especially LCA donic just dominating so many of these Road matchups there’s seven and two on the road in this playoff run that is how you get to the finals without ever having homecourt advantage and Lucas showed he was not under any stress in the Target Center last night pretty much silencing the building single-handedly in the first quarter and never looking back if he can do that it’s Target Center you know he can definitely do it at the Garden windy it’s a story line nobody is going to be talking about but we’re brave enough to take a chance on it and it is of course the return to Boston of a former Celtic and yes of course we speak of Dwight Powell also Kyrie Irving he’s going to be there to what impact will he have on this series well he would love this to not be a topic and I expect him to downplay it over the next week but there’s no way you’re not going to keep seeing the video that you’re probably about to see right now uh we remember the burning of the sage where he came back after being traded or after uh with the coming back with the Nets burning the sage around the court before the game we remember the moment that the Celtics fans are certainly going to think about on the night of game one stomping on the the the logo at Center Court lucky never has been disrespected so much by a visiting player and then of course it got it’s been ugly where Kyrie was uh the target of a of a thrown water bottle there a couple of years ago um look a lot has happened it’s been five years since he’s played in Boston but uh still Tatum and and Jaylen Brown are there and his old some of his old teammates are there and I expect it to be a storyline going into this into this finals two seasons there and he was productive as a member of the Celtics though the lucky incident went the complete opposite way for him because Kyrie 1- 10 against the Celtics since he stomped on Lucky at Center Court in 2021 Brian wior breaking down a preview of the NBA Finals thanks Wendy got 36 each as Dallas clinches a finals birth with a road win to knock out the Wolves Luca did a lot of his work early had 20 points in the first quarter Kyrie’s output was his second best this postseason Tim McMahon has more on how the Dallas dynamic duo came together the Tim McMahon ESPN two teams remain game one of the NBA finals next Thursday here to preview it all Hoops analyst Monica mcnut joining the program Monica good morning hey what did you see from this Mavs dynamic duo or the team in its entirety that is going to be problematic when they Tango with the Celtics next week the shot making striky like the degree of difficulty listen it was really weird is probably the wrong word but I think there was a tenor of expectation that the Wolves were going to take advantage of this opportunity being back at home in Minnesota but then Luca donic came out and knocked down shots at such a high level early in the ball game I think the degree of difficulty and the shots that both he and Kyrie are quite comfortable hitting particularly late in ball game is going to give the Celtics pause yes the Celtics have tremendous Defenders but those two also are not so single-minded in that if they don’t have good looks they cannot move the basketball and so I think as a collective the way that the Mavs are playing off of one another behind the leadership and the off and prowess of those twoo gives them a real shot L Kyrie broke his promise left to join the Nets as a free agent alongside Kevin Durant that summer and Kyrie compared the Boston fans to a quote scorned girlfriend and flicked off the crowd when the Nets faced Boston in the playoffs two years ago we know Kyrie has a history there here he is on the Celtics you know I had a rough time there when I was uh in Boston uh again just dealing with uh death in my family and dealing with a a lot of offc stuff that I I wasn’t ready to handle so uh now that I’m in a great place uh to be able to vocalize how I’m feeling I’m ready to go back into Boston have fun with my teammates I know we’re going to be locked in um and we’re going against a great Boston team that has earned their way to the NBA finals all right Wendy tell me this do you feel like Kyrie’s completely changed The Narrative of his career in this playoff run he’s in the process of doing it absolutely I think I think let’s just maybe agree as a group which I know is impossible to have a conversation about Kyrie over this next week as he goes into Boston let’s agree that when he got to Boston and he was looking for his own team and that was one of the reasons why he wanted away from Cleveland and LeBron that he didn’t handle it great and that it didn’t go well was it all his fault no was he an active participant in it yes did he treat Jaylen Brown and and Jason Tatum the way maybe would have been ideal for him to treat younger players the way he has treated Luca jonic he did not was it again a perfect situation no he had this terrible thing happen with his knee where he had an infection in there it derailed his first season and that all happened I think this this situation with Kyrie it can be both things he can both have made a lot of mistakes and mishandled the situation and have learned from it and come in as a completely different person the The Duality of where he and LeBron were when he when he left him in Cleveland or where he is now to me is striking LeBron was 33 he saw Kyrie as the Aira parent the player he wanted to bring along with him he said as much going into the finals in 2017 Kyrie for various reasons including because he thought the Cavs were thinking about trading him didn’t want that now after everything he went through in Boston and Brooklyn here is Kyrie at age 32 looking at Lucas saying this is the guy that I want to have with me I think it’s a wonderful story that’s still developing but let’s respect the entire Arc we don’t need to apologize for saying that he made mistakes in the past those were mistakes but we can also look at and say look how much he’s grown and what how it’s special what he’s doing now well Wendy let me uh piggy back off of that to make sure that you’re clear about where I’m coming from because when you mention the word apology and it comes to Kyrie Irving clearly a lot of people are talking about me and they’re right to do so and the reason why they’re right to do so is not because of the things that I pointed out I’m not backtracking from that I’m not apologizing for um saying the things that I said about Kyrie when he made the mistakes I chronicled what he said what what mistakes that he made I emphasized the point that I want to see him on a damn basketball court because he’s a spectacular Superstar and we’re seeing him do everything but play basketball and and he was stealing headlines in that regard where my apology comes into play is that there was clearly some some personal animus he and I had with one another that’s our business uh I’ve never denied that um it’s been very very clear me him his father okay and all of that has been resolved and that’s water under the bridge and that’s for us to that that was for us to handle and we did that but the fervor with which I spoke made it personalized and as a result that’s where the apology came not for the substance of what we were pointing out as basketball reporters and pundits covering this sport so I just wanted clarification on that having said all of that I do think that Kyrie has completely changed the narrative because he’s on a basketball court you got to remember we might have pointed out some things we wish he had done better headlines that had nothing to do with basketball that he had found himself in the mix of but the biggest thing for us was that these were things that were preventing him from being on the court suspensions and other things that may have transpired get your behind on the court because you’re stupid you’re too gifted you’re too spectacular for us to be seeing you everywhere but on the basketball court well if that was our position now that he’s been on the basketball court and performing at the elite level we all know he was capable of performing at we can’t sit here now and go like this okay show me more no no no no no he has shown it to us he’s been on the court he’s been a leader on the court he’s been performing on an elite level on the court and the Dallas Mavericks have won because of it and last night is a perfect example Luca comes out there and goes ballistic on the Minnesota Timberwolves reeks Havoc upon them in the first quarter and then said okay Kyrie it’s your turn or Kyrie said okay Luca it’s my turn and went out and did the same damn thing to the Minnesota Tim wvs in the second quarter to show no matter what level you’re capable of elevating yourself to as a basketball player Kyrie Irving is capable of elevating himself to that level the fact that he did it he deserves all the credit in the world for it and I personally and more than willing to give it to him I think he’s completely changed the narrative and here’s how he’s proven it we’re really not interested in talking about Kyrie Irving in regards to any of that other stuff anymore all we want to talk about is his play because we’re marveling at his level of production he deserves that credit and I’m not going to hesitate to give it to him so here’s the thing right when I’m when I’m thinking back on this what mistakes did Kyrie actually make right we talk about his stent with in Cleveland with LeBron James he LeBron James was never a guy that he looked up to Kyrie Irv looked up to Kobe Bryant okay did LeBron James did Kyrie Irving probably get tired of his name coming up in trade rumors when he was with the Cavs when they didn’t complete the mission hell yeah anybody would get tired of it because we all know all three of us who are sitting up here right now on National Television that when LeBron James is tired is tired of you or he feel like he could get better damn it he’ll trade his mama okay if she was on the roster that’s just how LeBron James go okay now when you move to the St of when you move to the of his of his short uh St when he was with the Boston Celtics that didn’t work out for whatever reasons we still don’t know they didn’t see eye the eye he ended up going to another ball club we still don’t have the full story when it comes down to what really happened with the Brooklyn Nets okay we know that Kyrie Irving he fought against being vaccinated we that that was his right you know at the end of the day did we want him to get vaccinated to see him form on the basketball court absolutely but I tell you this much Sean marks wasn’t no saint in this situation and and sooner later Kyrie Irving is going to tell his side of the story what has the Dallas Mavericks in this organization what have they done for Kyrie Irving to get this version of Kyrie Irving right what if they have done for him what they’ve done is they do what all organizations supposed to do and have done for their franchise guys they cater to them right they C to him is it fair no but it’s part of it when you get paid the big bucks you get special treatment and now all of a sudden along with that special treatment you have a guy that Kyrie respects that is his head coach because he’s done it at a high level he’s one at a high level he’s an all-time great especially at the point guard position so now all of a sudden Kyrie Irving is bought in and we’re seeing the best version of Kyrie so when we’re talking about ising out the these apologies I was one of them that did apologize to Kyrie because I did disrespect him and a matter of what I said some things that I feel like he could have took it personal or it was a personal shot at him even though I didn’t mean it that way we was talking about the moment but at the end of the day I’m G say this about Kyrie Irving if he goes on to win this NBA goes on to win another NBA championship we going to have to start thinking about that list top 75 greatest players of all time and we also going to have to start looking in the direction of gr Hill and wondering why in the hell he’s not on the Olympic team represent uh our country Olympics this summer stop right there stop right there stop right there for the second part the first part I completely totally agree with you top 75 Kyrie IR is one of the greatest players that ever played the G of basketball that second part no because we all know that’s not about basketball we all know that’s about imagery that’s about Team USA that’s about who you want representing the red white and blue and stuff like that we all know [Music] that fore speech spe speee spee fore y has [Music] disappeared our Tower under attack destroyed Tower en [Music] I am [Music] to an Al deated [Music] fore speee spee spee is under attackee foree speech [Music] spee foree for for [Music] for for much on your

FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie Irving is Luka’s best teammate” – Stephen A. breaks Mavericks vs Celtics in NBA Finals