BOSTON (AP):
As the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics prepare to tip off the NBA Finals, the four biggest names in the series are looking at this moment through different lenses.
Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown – the Celtics’ most tenured and scrutinised stars on their roster – see it as a chance at redemption after falling just short two seasons ago and then failing to return last year.
“You think that you’re young, if you’ve been once, you’ll continue to keep going,” Tatum said. “We realised that last year. We kind of took it for granted at certain moments.”
And now?
“I’m not thinking about what it would mean for my legacy or anything like that,” he said. “Just excited to play some basketball … and go out there and try to get the job done.”
Dallas’ Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving see it as their first opportunity to make good on a partnership that began late last season after Irving was traded from Brooklyn following a tumultuous run of two-plus seasons with the Nets.
But the duo was still learning to play with each other during their truncated time together last season and didn’t make it to the postseason. After a slow start this season, they found cohesion after the All-Star break and emerged from a deep Western Conference field.
For Irving, it has been a reminder that success can be fleeting. He won his lone championship with Cleveland in 2016 and has played with three teams over the past eight years. His time in Dallas has reinvigorated him.
“These young guys are very hungry. They want a championship. I want a championship,” he said. “So our feelings are very mutual. But I’ve always reminded them that this is a process. Failure is going to be part of this, too. Get it out your mind that this is about to be a clean sweep or everything is about to feel good throughout this journey and all that.
“I’m just very real, very honest. That’s what’s helped me grow as a leader.”
Doncic credits the partnership with Irving for uncorking the potential of a team that entered the postseason as a fifth seed.
“His leadership is amazing,” Doncic said. “The way he connects us. I think me and Kyrie are the leaders of this team, but he’s the one that’s been in the Finals. He’s the one that won in the Finals. He’s the one that is really leading it.”
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