Janice R. Andrews
I’m not sure where Kyrie Irving is performing, but that doesn’t sit well with me. Not even close. You’ve seen a different Irving if you’ve watched the Mavericks this season. When it’s his turn to take the lead, he submits to his superstar colleague Luka Doncic, assists voluntarily, and his suitcase stays as empty as Hermione Granger’s. He is powerful.
What he hasn’t been is a distraction who speaks incoherently, burns sages, and denies vaccinations. After acting as a sulky anti-mentor to emerging talents Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, he shot his way out of Boston and made such a mess of the Nets that they traded him to the Mavericks for peanuts. He also took offense at his Best Supporting Actor honors with LeBron James. He had been radioactive only a year before.
However, if you watch Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, you won’t see much drama at all as Irving scorched brash young Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards for 30 points in Dallas’s surprise victory. In fact, Irving came across as modest, unselfish, and, dare I say it, normal during his postgame interview with the TNT team.
“I feel good out there as a point guard, especially with Luka, when we can go in tandem, he goes, I go,” Irving stated. It’s my turn, not yours. I simply want to seize the next chance to help my colleagues out.”
Irving conducted the interview with a subservient, doe-eyed, glancing-at-his-shoes demeanor and an aww-shucks grin. We won’t put up with this and it won’t do.
Irving will take center stage against the team he not only snubbed but almost completely destroyed if the Celtics and Mavericks square off in the NBA Finals. We can see right through this Mr. Congeniality routine. We’ll force the real Kyrie to reveal himself because he’s still there.
Irving is among the greatest Boston sports villains of all time, right up there with Ulf Samuelsson, Alex Rodriguez, and Roger Goodell, so it would be cunning of him to murder us so gently that we falter like a defensive end overcommitted to duty. But we know better, youngblood, so keep square and don’t reach.
Uncle Drew has a little acting talent, which is one of the reasons Hollywood determined the endearing, multifaceted Irving might be a movie star. After he came in 2017, we were able to observe it ourselves. His whole “if you’ll have me” shtick and the clever commercial about hanging his number in the Garden rafters fooled us for a while. I’ll be honest. Everything was purchased by myself.
However, the fairy tale quickly turned into a horror movie. Irving neatly abdicated his duty to guide Boston, taking subtle jabs at the team’s young players and their lack of understanding of what it required to win a championship. It didn’t feel very team-first that he missed Game 7 of the conference finals versus LeBron’s Cavaliers due to an injury that required a rhinoplasty or something similar.
We already knew how this narrative would finish when he was discovered canoodling and/or plotting with Kevin Durant during the 2019 All-Star Game. It’s difficult to play defense when you have one foot out the door, and Irving’s final act in a Celtics uniform was to resign during the conference playoffs against the Bucks.
He then left to form his doomed super-team in Brooklyn. It was so close to imploding the Celtics. Irving was swapped out for Kemba Walker, a superstar who was breaking down but was really unselfish. The C’s were a.500 club by 2021 and desperately needed improvement. Brad Stevens took over, Danny Ainge resigned, and the entire enterprise dangled on a thread. Irving initiated the whole landslide, and splitting up the Jays seemed as possible as winning a championship with them.
That is what cannot be forgiven. He deliberately left the organization in far worse condition than when he arrived.
Thus, it makes sense why Celtics supporters hate him, and they cheerfully rode him whenever they had the chance during the 2022 playoffs’ opening round. Irving put in a fantastic effort, but the Celtics won Game 1 at the buzzer. After that, he gradually vanished, obsessed with turning away rather than husheing the crowd. It wasn’t until A-Rod, a rival athlete, revealed how much Boston was on his mind.
But the Irving of today is virtually unrecognizable, and that ought to give us all a slight sense of nausea. Irving is unbeatable when he is focused, and Dallas strengthened its defense and cohesiveness before the trade deadline by making some wise decisions (see you later, Grant Williams). The revised Mavs pose a real danger to Boston’s chances of winning the championship.
And wouldn’t that resemble Irving exactly? That was horrible enough to spurn the Celtics, but it’s been said before. Don’t be fooled by their modest demeanor; beating them would be the worst thing that could happen. The most bad guy in Boston is still Kyrie; bad guys eventually show their real colors; and bad guys have to be defeated.
