Kyrie Irving flips the narrative gets brutally honest about Finals collapse.
The Dallas Mavericks enter the 2024-25 season with a target on their back as they went from being the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference to being the runner-up in the NBA Finals. Dallas lost to the Boston Celtics in five games, and after a great series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Mavs finally cooled off.
The shooters couldn’t hit open shots and Dallas’ star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving weren’t as great as they had been in the previous series. Irving was clearly rattled by the Celtics crowd, and their magical run ended at the TD Garden.
Rather than point fingers and make excuses, Irving took the Finals loss on the chin.
Kyrie Irving admits he struggled mightily in NBA Finals against Celtics
On Wednesday night, Irving streamed on Twitch and talked about the Finals loss and got honest about his struggles.
“I’m always going to take my accountability,” Irving said. “It starts with me…Definitely got to set that straight. Did not play my best at all down the stretch in the season. It’s been eating me alive in a healthy way.”
Irving seems confident that the Mavs will find their way back to the Finals, and him being able to admit that he wasn’t at his best in that series against the Celtics shows how much he has grown since being in Dallas.
Being able to admit when you aren’t at your best and swallowing your pride is difficult for anyone, no matter what business or state of life you’re in, and Irving being able to do that is a huge indicator of the type of person he is and how different he is from what people from the outside looking in think of him. The fact that his struggles are “eating him alive” also shows how much he cares about winning, and that wasn’t the case according to many during his time with the Brooklyn Nets and Celtics.
Before coming to Dallas, a large portion of the media painted the picture that Irving was a bad teammate and would cause problems, but that has been galaxies away from the truth since he was traded to the Mavs. Irving’s teammates seem to all get along with him, and his leadership and championship pedigree have helped the team as a whole, but also Luka Doncic individually.
Doncic and Irving are close on and off the floor, but their on-court bond has also grown tremendously over the last year. They went from not knowing who should take the last shot and missing the playoffs to making the NBA Finals in their first full season together, and their chemistry was through the roof.
This chemistry was obvious to anyone who was relatively close to the team, and Irving helped Doncic grow as a basketball player, but also a man. Towards the end of the season and into the playoffs, they were always battling against one another at the end of practice in 3-point and free-throw shooting competitions, and this had to have helped both of their games. They learned plenty from each other, and this closeness helped Dallas reach the Finals.
Irving has not been the player or man that the national media painted him to be before arriving in Dallas. The Mavericks welcomed Irving with open arms, and the Irving that they got has been nothing but excellent on and off the floor.
An NBA Finals loss isn’t easy no matter how you look at it, and Irving being able to speak publicly about how he could have been better at the end of the season shows his character and how badly he wants to win in Dallas. Irving hates losing with everything in him, and he is going to enter the 2024-25 season with a hunger for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
