The NBA Finals are Kyrie Irving’s Lazarus moment

“So the blind will lead the blind and the deaf, crying to one another until their voices are lost. —Herman Melville

“It’s not even a conspiracy theory. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. …It’s right in front of our faces. I tell you, it’s right in front of our faces. They lie to us. — Kyrie Irving, 2017 on the Road Trippin’ podcast with RJ & Channing

In 2017, while playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving made his now famous declaration that the world was flat. It took a year, but Irving finally admitted that he was wrong, at least that he was wrong to publicly embrace such a stupid proposal.

Seven years later, Irving knows with certainty that the world is truly round because his journey has brought him full circle: from Cleveland to Boston to Brooklyn to Dallas. Now 32, Irving is back in Boston where, starting Thursday, he will try to win his second NBA title when the Dallas Mavericks face the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Irving’s story is fascinating. While Luka Dončić is arguably the Mavericks’ best player, Irving is the most compelling figure in this series. From afar.

There is so much to unpack in this finale. There is the historic fact that two black coaches – Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics and Jason Kidd of Dallas – will face each other in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975.

There is the reunion of Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis with Mavericks point guard Dončić. Porzingis and Dončić were Mavericks teammates – and apparently not always happy ones – from 2019 to 2022. In Irving, Dončić found a compatible, if unlikely, star to share with, while Porzingis found a perfect role with the forward Jayson Tatum and guard Jaylen. Brown in Boston.

I find it fascinating that this series was presented as a quest for redemption by Irving. Redemption for what? Who is he redeeming himself for? And why?

Because he said the world was flat? Because he tweeted a link to a movie that some have called anti-Semitic? Because he showed up to a post-match press conference wearing a keffiyeh? Because he wore basketball shoes with “No more genocide” written on them?

The main narrative of the series is Irving’s return to Boston, where he played from 2017 to 2019. Some might call this the return of the prodigal son; a more appropriate theme of the series is the professor coming back to face his students.

Irving came to the Celtics in August 2017 after requesting a trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who drafted him in 2011 at age 19. Irving was 23 years old in 2016 when he won his first NBA title with LeBron James. Irving was James’ younger brother, then 32 years old. He was developing a reputation as a unique one-on-one player, perhaps the greatest improvisational guard since Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.

James had won his first and second NBA championships in Miami. He returned to Cleveland to bring his hometown Cavaliers their first title and to teach Irving what it took to win a title. When Irving left for Boston in 2017, the idea was that he would be the wise man who taught young Brown and Tatum what it took to win a championship, just like James had taught him. Brown had completed his first NBA season and Tatum was a rookie.

The difference, of course, is that LeBron was 32 when he returned to Cleveland to pass on his knowledge. Irving was only 25 when he arrived in Boston. Irving’s statement that the world was flat told me – and probably many others – that he may not be the best guide to guide the young Celtics through troubled waters.

The championships never took place but there was learning. Irving was too young to lead. Brown and Tatum, despite their youth, may have been too wise to follow them.

So there was friction. These Celtics never realized what they could have gotten. In 2017-18, they reached the Eastern Conference Finals and lost to Cleveland. Irving missed these playoffs with a knee injury.

The Celtics reached the 2018-19 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Irving played poorly and relations deteriorated. After announcing he would stay in Boston, Irving left Boston for the Brooklyn Nets in July 2019, leaving Tatum and Brown to create their own identities, which they did.

I’m not sure what lessons Tatum and Brown learned from Irving, but after Irving left to struggle in the wilderness, the Celtics’ young stars experienced victory. They have reached the conference semifinals, conference finals, NBA Finals, Eastern Conference Finals and now the NBA Finals again.

“Obviously there have been ups and downs,” Tatum, ever the diplomat, told reporters last week. “But for me, as a first or second year player, being around a superstar basically every day and seeing how to navigate that space and obviously on the court, he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen.”

He added: “It seems like a long time ago, but I have a lot of great memories of having Kyrie as a teammate. »

Irving missed the latter part of the Nets’ 2019-20 season with a shoulder injury. In 2020-21, the Nets lost in the conference semifinals to Milwaukee. Irving missed home games in Brooklyn during the 2021-22 season because he refused – like thousands of others – to get vaccinated against COVID-19, violating a city vaccination mandate from New York. In the playoffs against the young Celtics, Irving was swept for the first time in his career.

Irving’s 2022-23 season in Brooklyn has been a nightmare, the straw that broke the camel’s back when Irving posted a film link on Twitter to a documentary considered by many to be anti-Semitic. This put Irving in the crosshairs of a fury that had him roasted and lambasted like never before. In November 2022, after refusing to “unequivocally say” that he did not have anti-Semitic beliefs, Irving was suspended.

Given how widely adopted Irving is now, it’s amusing to think that at the time, so-called experts were saying that Irving was untradeable and no NBA would touch him. But in February 2023, the Nets traded Irving to Dallas. The Mavericks didn’t make the playoffs, but Irving found an unlikely home and formed a partnership with Dončić and a mentor in Coach Kidd. At 51, with a Hall of Fame resume, Kidd became a mentor Irving could respect. Dončić was a young Irving superstar, then 31, who could help win an NBA title.

After a season in which both players got to know each other under Kidd’s guidance, the Mavericks began to make some beautiful music.

Irving can look back on his time with Brown and Tatum with pride and perspective. After the Mavericks played the Celtics in Boston in March, Irving spoke to reporters about the two Celtics stars he helped advise.

“To see them grow, I’m nothing but proud,” he said. “When I first met them, they were young, hungry players who wanted to be stars as soon as they came into the league. This is what differentiates them from many young people who have existed. They came into the league with this chip on their shoulders. They have learned to accept that failure is part of the journey, that every season will be different, and that the pieces around you and how you raise them matter.

So, Irving returns to Boston to try to win a second championship while trying to stop Brown and Tatum from winning the first. It’s almost a Lazarus moment as Irving’s career seemed dead. Today, he returns respected, mature, playing some of the most complete basketball of his career.

Seven years after leaving Boston, the burned bridges have mostly been repaired. Even in Irving’s world, the circle of life is not flat.