Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is back in the NBA Finals against a familiar foe.

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MINNEAPOLIS – With a 2024 NBA Finals hat proudly on his head and the large Western Conference finals trophy in his hands, a smiling Kyrie Irving led the charge of triumphant Dallas Mavericks players to their locker room celebration.

Irving scored 36 points as his Mavericks claimed the Western Conference title by routing the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-103 in Game 5 on Thursday at the Target Center. The 2011 NBA champions advanced to their third-ever Finals appearance after defeating the Timberwolves 4-1 in the best-of-seven conference finals. With Dallas, Irving will be making his fourth NBA Finals appearance – this time against his former Boston Celtics.

“It has been seven long years, but it has also felt like the right amount of time in order to reward myself,” Irving said. “To be in the locker room with my teammates enjoying it, long time coming. We are going to enjoy this, but we obviously know this is a pit stop in the journey.

“We have to get ready for that court turning gold, as I like to say. The shoes turn gold. The jerseys turn gold. As a kid, that is what you dream of. Getting to the Finals and playing against the best of the best as the whole world is watching.”

It wasn’t long ago that the whole basketball world was watching Irving’s illustrious NBA career turn from living amongst the elite in Cleveland and Boston to the wrong direction with the Brooklyn Nets.



Irving, who grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, left the Celtics in 2019 in hopes of an amazing homecoming in Brooklyn with fellow NBA stars Kevin Durant and eventually James Harden. Title aspirations were warranted at that time. Irving, however, missed nearly the entire Nets home schedule during the 2021-22 season after declining to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. He was then suspended for eight games during the 2022-23 season after he posted a link on social media to a documentary with antisemitic material. Irving also lost his Nike shoe deal.

Irving played in 143 games in three-plus seasons with the Nets, including a mere 74 with Durant. There was no title or major success in Brooklyn, and Durant, Harden and Irving all wanted out. Irving’s trade request was met was on Feb. 5, 2023, when he was dealt to the Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and future draft picks.


“I’m grateful because it wasn’t an easy road,” Irving said. “I was able to grow as a person. When you’re in a professional environment such as this and you can only be judged by your on-court performances and what people say off the court and they don’t know who you are, I think that is a little unfair. But that is the life that we live in and life is not fair all the time.

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