FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie beat Celtics to win second ring would be poetic justice” – Stephen A. tells Perk

FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie beat Celtics to win second ring would be poetic justice” – Stephen A. tells Perk

buddy Tim legler who came on this show the morning after that trade and said I could see the Mavericks going to the finals with this he he immediately identified those players as being critical to what they could do that said big perk let’s talk about kye you and I have had so many conversations over the years on this show on countdown and others about Kyrie Irving it’s been such a fascinating roller coaster ride for him over the years how about what he has done in this postseason well Grinny you ready for this conversation yeah Kyrie Irving what he’s done this season and in the postseason guess what he got a lot of people waking up looking themselves in the mirror going get a cup of coffee and a box of Newport shorts because they need it right now because we have an we need we need answers to a lot of questions right now why is Kyrie Irving not on the Olympic team why is Kyrie Irving not a top not a top 75 greatest player of all time these are legit questions we’re talking about a guy for his career that’s averaging close to 24 points a game almost six assists and four rebounds for his career this year his numbers in the regular season were similar to Anthony Edwards Anthony Edwards was an all NBA player all made the all NBA second team so when we’re thinking about Kyrie Irving and what he’s doing right now look his leadership right has been outstanding for the Dallas m they it’s the reason that they’re here but at the end of the day it’s a lot of questions that need to be answered when you talk about Kyrie Irving the basketball player and not what Kyrie Irving done outside the court well that’s the point Allan Right like this this is the player that we’ve sort of been begging to see yeah that we we have forgotten essentially since Cleveland yeah and that’s why perk I mean we can’t rewrite like what last year was for him and the year before that was for him you know that stuff is still there and that’s why decisions were made about him I mean what he’s doing right now is laundering his legacy by making it again about basketball and reminding us the Brilliance of course that he has on the court but there were a lot of other things that were going on with him Beyond basketball that’s why USA basketall would probably say you know this is a guy we’re going to have to do without right now everybody acknowledges and we always have what a great player he is but the other stuff was a big part of the conversation maybe way too much of the conversation in his time in Brooklyn and a little bit of course of his ending time in Boston but his fit with Luca is fantastic and you give him a ton of credit but you also give Jason kid a ton of credit Nico Harrison a ton of credit for making all this work go ahead Park what well Alan look my grandpa always used to tell me it’s your side of the story their side of the story and then it’s the truth okay it’s the truth that lies in the middle and the and the fact of the matter is is that we’ve heard a lot of people side of the story but we we never heard Kyrie Irving side of the story when it comes down to his situation being with the Brooklyn Nets but outside of all L when you’re talking about things like the Olympic team or top 75 greatest of all time that had nothing to do with the past two years like Kyrie Irving is already labeled to in some eyes a lot of player eyes the most skilled player to ever touched the damn basketball that never went anywhere so at the end of the day we’re talking about the basketball player and what he brings on the basketball court I mean I mean we got questions we got questions I need answers that’s another the wind man always has the answers what are they Wendy what are the right things to say about Kyrie right now well this is the undercurrent of this finals because what you’re seeing is the Kyrie Irving at age 32 being a much more well-rounded better understanding player versus the Kyrie Irving when he was 27 when he came to Boston thinking that that was going to be his team thinking that was going to be his future that’s what he wanted away from LeBron and he handled it very poorly he did not nurture the players that were younger than him he did not nurture the uh he sort of berated Tatum and Jaylen Brown um and then he handled going back there the the breakup you know very immaturely he’s stepping on the on the logo at Center Court and um you know doing all these types of things and that and that resulted in a lot of animus that you know was sometimes unfair to to him but was a result of how he treated it he is a what he’s done with Luca is a product of what happened when he didn’t find that bond with Jason Tatum and Jaylen brown big perk go so Wendy I mean greeny I’ve been very critical of Kyrie Irving I also apologize to Kyrie Irving this week okay and and the reason being is because I’m looking at this situation with him in Dallas and I’m wondering why did Kyrie Irving turn the corner right and to me you have to give a lot of credit to the Dallas Mavericks because they did everything that they supposed to do in the organization to make one of their franchise guys feel comfortable that’s what all organizations do they make their franchise guys feel comfortable and they cater to them trust me as a guy that didn’t played with 14 Hall of Famers I would call myself a groupy I know how it feel and watched it firsthand to watch guys get treated now Kyrie back in Brooklyn Kyrie returning to Boston I hear so many people talking about Kyrie stepping on lucky and how he disrespected the Boston Celtics I don’t give a damn if he dropped it like it was hot he could do whatever he wanted if be on the opp opposing team and damn it look Kyrie Irving again what he has done it has to be applauded and I thought I was one of the few that thought he didn’t give a damn about the game of basketball but boy I was wrong the right situation with the right uh Co and when he took a break to start the second quarter he said Kyrie it’s your turn and Kyrie proceeds to score 15 points in the second quarter hitting all five of his shots penetrating into the teeth of Defense getting in the lane you know layups layups off the glass Fall Away jump shot step back threes I mean jab step three busting their living ass that’s what he did and I I gotta tell you something right now I don’t know what to say because again I thought Minnesota will win the series at the beginning of the season I thought Minnesota had him in seven games I thought it would take seven games but I thought they had him because I thought it was a matchup problem for them okay and I thought that it was something that they had to be mindful of because I looked at Minnesota saying Rudy go bear call Anthony towns you got the size Dallas didn’t care Gafford and Lively did their job PJ Washington hitting jump shots hit did his job Derek Jones as athletic as he is doing his job and then of course there’s Luc and Kyrie who’s one of the most Unstoppable backcourts in the history of the basketb of the game of basketball and so now you see what they see and all of a sudden we’re hearing some of this noise remember Kyrie Irvin had 36 points as well remember he had five assists then have a single turnover last night remember that remember that in this series Luca and Kyrie outscored Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony towns 59 of 44 points per game combined shots 43.2% for Luca and Kyrie 37.4% obviously they shot 48 to 41% from the field 41 to 32% from three-point range last night they combined for 72 points on 57 % shooting 10 of 20 from threes that’s 50% this is what they’ve done Carl Anthony towns three-point shooting in the Conference Finals in the game four1 four five for 80% in the four losses four of 28 17 17% this is the self-proclaimed best shooting big man in the game of basketball love call Anthony towns didn’t NBA Finals that means Kyrie Irving is going back to Boston for game one next Thursday night he in the Dallas Mavericks are now the only thing standing between the Celtics securing their 18th title in franchise history if you recall Kyrie played for Boston from 2017 to 2019 and was his usual Allstar self on the court however his tenure was marred by injuries questionable comments and of course actions off the court before he departed from Brooklyn critics say he failed to Mentor Boston’s current Allstars Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum Irvin’s relationship with the Celtics fans became broken Beyond repair when he sound with Brooklyn Nets a few months after announcing his intention to resign with Boston you remember that he said if you want me here I’ll be here I’m happy to stay here and then obviously changed his mind that was the same place where he was spreading Sage around the basketball court and all of this other stuff just seemed to be weirding out to some degree that was Kyrie then this is now Kyrie was stressed then Kyrie was going through a lot of things then Kyrie admittedly wasn’t the person that he needed to be wasn’t the professional that he needed to be was a bit distracted and unfocused on the game of basketball all of these things are things that Kyrie Irving pointed out and is willing to admit in this day and age I don’t give a damn about any of that now what I care about is a guy that looks like one of the most spectacular Sidekicks in the history of the NBA he ain’t Scotty Pippen six rings with Jordan he ain’t Kobe Bryant five rings with Shaquille O’Neal three rings I’m sorry with Shaquille O’Neal but outside of that Kyrie Irving between three and five is one of the top Sidekicks in the history of basketball because we certainly not gonna call Luka donic a sidekick so we got to look at it from that perspective Kyrie Irving is spectacular he’s a magician with the basketball on the offensive side of the ball plus he’s playing defense plus he’s giving you leadership and ladies and gentlemen I’m telling you something right now I cannot wait for this NBA final series I don’t think I’ve been excited this excited for an NBA final Series in a decade because Kyrie’s going back to Boston and porzingis is going back to Dallas and Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are going up against Kyrie Irving and Luca donic with a championship ship at stake it don’t give 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 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 emphasize the point that I want to see him on a damn basketball court because he’s a spectacular super 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 in 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 order 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 temp 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 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 Irving 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 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 mom okay if she was on the roster that’s just how LeBron James go okay now when you move to the stent 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 ey 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 un that that was his right you know at the end of the day did we want him to get vaccinated to see him perform on the basketball court absolutely but I tell you this much Sean marks wasn’t no saint in this situation and and sooner or later Kyrie Irving is going to tell his side of the story what has the Dallas Mavericks and 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 cater to them 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 won at a high level he’s an alltime 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 issuing out these apologies I was one of them that did apologize to Kyrie because I did disrespect him in a matter of what I said some things that I feel like he could have took it personal or 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 going say this about Kyrie Irv if he goes on to win this NBA goes on to win another NBA championship we gonna 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 representing uh our country Olympics this something 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 is one of the greatest players ever played the game 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 that we know that ain’t about basketball all the time let me tell you something right now I don’t give a damn personally speaking I don’t give a damn about Kyrie or anybody else missing the team when you left Isaiah Thomas off of the original Dream Team in 1992 as far as I’m concerned everything pales in comparison everything takes a step back to Isaiah Thomas A two-time Champion one of the greatest point guards to have ever played the game a former president of the Players Association by the way Wendy by the way perks I said this the other day Mike wil bar and others will confirm it do you know that when he was the president of the Players Association Isaiah Thomas was one of the strongest instigators to diversifying the media covering the NBA because there weren’t enough black reporters both male and female covering the sport Isaiah Thomas was the person in the 80s fighting that fight so a lot of us doing what we do today we got him in large part to than for it I got that confirmed by numerous Hall of Famers so when you leave that man off the original Dream Team I’m not saying that you’re wrong about Kyrie or anybody else I’m saying clearly when it comes to Team USA some things can be politicized we that that robbery with Isaiah Thomas right there everything fails in comparison to that everything I I I understand that they say but it is a uncomfortable conversation that we need to have because when it comes down to being in the conversation of top 15 or top 20 best players that’s representing our country Kyrie Irving is there

FIRST TAKE | “Kyrie beat Celtics to win his second ring would be poetic justice” – Stephen A. Smith & Kendrick Perkins pick Mavericks in 6