How Kyrie Irving went from pariah to center stage at the NBA Finals

The 32-year-old Irving is a “wizard” blessed with “the best gifts I’ve ever seen of any NBA player,” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said this week. Indeed, the eight-time all-star guard dribbles behind his back at full speed, banks in left-handed layups with reverse spin and tap dances through crowds of defenders with a practiced rhythm few players have ever possessed. Those skills, and his complicated recent past, are back on full display in his first Finals appearance since 2017.

Should Irving play as brilliantly alongside Luka Doncic as he did during the Western Conference finals, the Mavericks have a strong chance to upset the favored Celtics. Such a victory seemed unfathomable when Irving missed most of the 2021-22 season for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine and was suspended in 2022 after promoting an antisemitic film.

However, if Boston’s talented and experienced corps of perimeter defenders can find a way to corral Irving, Dallas’s surprising postseason run probably will come to an abrupt end.

“I had a chance to [make the Finals] in my fourth year, my fifth year, my sixth year,” Irving said Wednesday. “When I look back at those memories, I’m never regretful of how I treated it but a little disappointed on how I approached that success. … At this age, I’ve been through what I’ve been through and been able to come out on the other side. I look at [the Finals] as an opportunity that I don’t want to take for granted.”

There is no “short version” of Irving’s unraveling, which began not long after he hit a three-pointer to help the Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Finals. In 2017, his final season with James on the Cavaliers, Irving caused a major stir by expressing his belief that “the Earth is flat.” After rebukes from educators and pushback from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, he eventually apologized, only to flirt with the notion in subsequent interviews.

Debate raged about whether he was a corrupting influence or a harmless troll. Either way, Irving seemed intent on escaping James’s shadow and growing his nonconformist personal brand. After the Cavaliers lost to the Warriors in the 2017 Finals, Irving requested a trade and was dealt to the Celtics, then a rising power in the East. Stars had flocked to play with James to that point of his career, but Irving was no longer willing to accept second billing.

“There were some things that got in the way of our relationship when I was a little bit younger,” Irving said of James. “Now that I’m able to vocalize how I feel as a man, be comfortable in it, stand on my square, my beliefs, where I’m coming from, I feel like our relationship’s different because of that now. I definitely miss him.”

Irving’s exit strategy didn’t go as planned: He suffered a left knee injury during the 2017-18 season, and the Celtics fell to James’s Cavaliers in the 2018 Eastern Conference finals without him. The next year, Irving’s return coincided with a clear step backward for the inconsistent Celtics, who lost in the second round to the Milwaukee Bucks. Irving’s inability to maintain positive chemistry with young stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown was central to the Celtics’ struggles, and he overcompensated in the playoffs by gunning for points at every opportunity and attempting to defend Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo, a hopeless proposition given their size difference.

If Irving left Cleveland to prove he could lead a championship contender, his two ill-fated seasons in Boston made it clear he wasn’t up to the task. Though a divorce was in the best interests of both parties, Irving angered Celtics fans when he teamed up with Kevin Durant on the Brooklyn Nets in 2019 — a reversal from his previous statements that he planned to re-sign with Boston and wanted his jersey to take its place next to Bill Russell’s and Larry Bird’s in the rafters. For many in Boston, Irving was a disappointment and a liar, and the TD Garden crowd delighted in booing him whenever the Nets visited. During one return trip, Irving burned sage near the court to “cleanse the energy” in his former home.

It didn’t take long for the Celtics, who are seeking their first title since 2008, to realize they were better off without Irving. As he nursed another injury in 2019-20 and tried to interrupt the NBA’s plan to restart the season during the pandemic at the Disney World bubble, Boston reached the 2020 conference finals with Tatum and Brown blossoming into one of the league’s top wing tandems.

In 2020-21, Irving’s best season in Brooklyn, he helped the Nets knock out the Celtics in the first round. During that series, Irving said he hoped there would be “no belligerence or any racism going on, subtle racism, and people yelling s— from the crowd.”

The Celtics wasted no time getting revenge, sweeping the Nets out of the first round of the 2022 playoffs in a series that saw a frustrated Irving flip his middle fingers to Boston fans during a Game 1 loss. Brooklyn had been unable to salvage a season of disruption; the unvaccinated Irving appeared in just 29 games because he was ineligible to play home games at Barclays Center because of a New York City vaccine mandate.

With Brooklyn unwilling to offer him a significant contract extension and unable to fulfill his latest trade request during the summer of 2022, Irving had no choice but to return to the Nets. The powder keg didn’t take long to blow: Nets Coach Steve Nash was fired just seven games into the 2022-23 season, and Durant and Irving were shipped out before the midseason trade deadline.

That final season in Brooklyn was the ugliest of all for Irving, who was suspended for eight games by the Nets after sharing a link to an antisemitic film on social media. Attempts to broker a resolution with Jewish groups encountered numerous obstacles when Irving initially refused to disavow the film’s content and became defensive at a combative news conference.

The ordeal, combined with Irving’s inconsistent play, injury concerns and desire for a long-term contract, undercut his trade value. In desperate need of a sidekick for Doncic, Dallas bought low in February 2023, acquiring Irving for a modest package of rotation players and draft picks.

The pairing of Doncic and Irving wasn’t an immediate hit: The Mavericks crashed out of the 2023 playoff picture with the two guards needing time to acclimate.

Doncic learned to play faster at times; Irving settled into a role that approximated his old sidekick status alongside James. The Mavericks, boosted by the arrival of rookie center Dereck Lively II and midseason acquisitions P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford, fully hit their stride in recent months. Following years of disruptive distractions, Irving kept a lower profile.

During playoff series wins over the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves, Irving flashed his lethal scoring ability and a newfound vigor on defense. Doncic was Dallas’s driving force, but Irving succeeded in many of the areas he had failed in Boston and Brooklyn. The Mavericks are suddenly dreaming of winning their first title since Dirk Nowitzki’s 2011 run.

Doncic and Irving “worked at it,” Mavericks Coach Jason Kidd said after the Western Conference finals. “It didn’t just happen overnight. That’s a beautiful thing.”

The Mavericks need Irving to have the series of his life against the Celtics, who have beaten him in their past 10 meetings dating from his Nets tenure. Boston, which boasted the NBA’s best record and point differential this season, scored convincing victories over Dallas in both of their head-to-head matchups.

Boston probably will prefer to defend Doncic and Irving without using double teams in hopes of limiting Dallas’s lobs to the basket and auxiliary three-point shooters. Meanwhile, Boston’s spaced-out offense will force Doncic and Irving to take their turns against the Celtics’ physical wings and rotate to cover their many perimeter shooting threats.

Irving also must deal with a frenzied Celtics crowd that hasn’t forgotten his playoff shortcomings, his 2019 departure, his 2021 court logo stomp and his 2022 middle fingers. If Irving can silence the noise, he could claim his second championship, which would be his first without James and his first since his career veered off course.

“Of course [Boston] is going to be a hectic environment,” Irving said. “I’m looking forward to it. I see it as a healthy relationship with the fans. I think about ‘Gladiator’ and just win the crowd over. … I have a group to lead that’s looking to me for a voice of peace.”