It’s been quite a while since Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving played on an NBA Finals stage, but the 31-year-old is convinced that a few years ago it was an injury that hindered his shot at a championship.
At the time, in 2021, Irving co-starred Kevin Durant with the Brooklyn Nets. Both All-Stars already had plenty of finals experience, knew what it took to get over the hump and hoist a Larry O’Brien trophy, but none of it mattered.
In Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks, with the Nets leading 2-1, Irving went down with an ankle injury during a layup attempt in the second quarter. That injury sidelined Irving for the remainder of the NBA playoffs, while the Bucks took the series in seven games, then defeated the Phoenix Suns in the NBA Finals.
Yet, Irving firmly believes that had he not gone down in Game 4, the Nets would’ve been crowd champions.
“One of the most disappointing and painful moments of career. If I don’t get hurt that series, every single one of us on that Brooklyn team/bandwagon would be Champions. No (expletive) doubt about it,” Irving tweeted Tuesday in response to a photo of his injury.
This isn’t far-fetched.
The Nets were highly-competitive with the Bucks, winning Game 5 without Irving. Therefore, to suggest that had Irving played, Brooklyn would’ve advanced and defeated a Suns team that found its way into the finals with the assistance of Lady Luck herself. Pheonix benefited from a broken-down Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers team, plus the absence of Jamal Murray during the semifinals against the Denver Nuggets — all of which would’ve booted the Suns, who crumbled on the biggest stage, out from finals contention.
