The NBA Finals is Kyrie Irving’s Lazarus moment

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

“This is not even a conspiracy theory. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat. … It’s right in front of our faces. I’m telling 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 he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving made his now famous declaration that the world was flat. It took a year, but Irving eventually conceded that he was wrong, at least that he was wrong to publicly espouse such an asinine proposition.

Seven years later, Irving knows for certain that the world is truly round because his journey has taken him full circle: from Cleveland to Boston to Brooklyn to Dallas. Now at age 32, Irving is headed back to Boston where, beginning Thursday, he will attempt to win his second NBA title when the Dallas Mavericks face the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

Irving’s is a fascinating story. While Luka Dončić is arguably the Mavericks’ best player, Irving is this series’ most compelling figure. By far.

There is so much to unpack in this Finals. There is the historic fact that two Black coaches — the Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla and Dallas’ Jason Kidd — will be facing each other in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975.

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

I find it fascinating that this series has been cast as a quest for redemption by Irving. Redemption for what? For whom is he redeeming himself? And why?

Because he said the world is flat? Because he tweeted out a link to a movie some decried as antisemitic? Because he showed up to a postgame news conference wearing a keffiyeh? Because he wore basketball shoes with “No more genocide” written on them?

The overarching 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 fitting theme of the series is the professor comes back to face his students.

Irving came to the Celtics in August 2017 after asking to be traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers, which 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 the little brother to James, then 32. He was developing a reputation as 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 sage who taught a young Brown and Tatum what it took to win a championship, just as 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 the knowledge. Irving was only 25 when he came to Boston. Irving’s pronouncement about the world being flat told me — and probably many others — that he may not have been the best guide to lead the young Celtics through troubled waters.

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

So, there was friction. Those Celtics never achieved what they could have. In 2017-18, they reached the Eastern Conference finals and lost to Cleveland. Irving missed those playoffs with a knee injury.

The Celtics reached the 2018-19 Eastern Conference semifinals. Irving played poorly and relationships deteriorated. After saying 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 have done.

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 winning. They reached conference semifinals, conference finals, NBA Finals, Eastern Conference finals, and now the NBA Finals once again.

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

He added: “Seems like a very long time ago, but I got a lot of great memories from having Kyrie as a teammate.”

Irving missed the last part of the 2019-2020 Nets season with an injured shoulder. 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 be vaccinated against COVID-19, violating a New York City vaccination mandate. In the postseason against the young Celtics, Irving was swept for the first time in his career.

Irving’s 2022-23 season in Brooklyn was a nightmare, the final straw coming when Irving posted a movie link on Twitter to a documentary regarded by many to be antisemitic. That put Irving in the crosshairs of a fury that had him roasted and lambasted as never before. In November 2022, after refusing to “unequivocally say” he did not harbor antisemitic beliefs, Irving was suspended.

Given how thoroughly Irving is being embraced now, it’s funny to think that at the time so-called experts were saying Irving was untradable, that no NBA would touch him. But in February 2023, the Nets traded Irving to Dallas. The Mavericks did not make the playoffs, but Irving found an unlikely home and formed a partnership with Dončić and a mentor in coach Kidd. At age 51, with a Hall of Fame résumé, Kidd became a mentor Irving could respect. Dončić was a young superstar Irving, then 31, could help win an NBA title.

After a season of the two players getting to know each other under Kidd’s guidance, the Mavericks began making 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 counsel.

“To see them grow, I’m nothing but proud,” he said. “When I first met them, they were hungry young players who wanted to be stars as soon as they got to the league. That’s what separates them from a lot of the young guys that have been around. They came into the league with that chip on their shoulders. They’ve learned to accept that failure is part of the journey, that every season is going to be different, and that the pieces around you, how you elevate them matters.”

So, Irving returns to Boston trying to win a second championship while trying to prevent Brown and Tatum from winning their first. It’s almost a Lazarus moment because Irving’s career seemed to be dead. Now, he returns well-respected, mature, playing some of the most complete basketball of his career.

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