Irving to be laser focused during return to Boston to play Celtics

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is ready for his much-anticipated return to Boston to play the Celtics on the NBA’s biggest stage.

Irving already knows the Celtics’ fans will likely heckle him, will probably boo him every time he touches the ball, and will do everything they can to try to get him off his game. But he is prepared for the onslaught.

“I think I’m better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it’s going to be like,” Irving said following Monday’s practice session. “You call it animosity, we call it hate, we call it it’s going to be hell in Boston. There are real life circumstances going on in the world that are bigger than the basketball kind of competitive side of things and answering those questions.

“But I will say the last time in Boston, I don’t think that was the best — not this regular season, but when we played in the playoffs (with the Brooklyn Nets), and everyone saw me flip off the birds and kind of lose my (expletive delete) a little bit. That wasn’t a great reflection of who I am and how I like to compete on a high level. It wasn’t a great reflection on my end towards the next generation or what it means to control your emotions in that type of environment no matter what people are yelling at you.”

The Mavs and Celtics will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. inside Boston’s TD Garden in Game 1 of a best-of-seven series in the NBA Finals. For Irving, it is a return to the place where he played for the Celtics from 2017-’19.

“I’m built for these moments, to be able to handle circumstances like that, and I’ve been able to grow since then,” Irving said. “So, of course, it’s going to be a hectic environment, but I’m looking forward to it and I see it as a healthy relationship that I have with the fans. Almost think about gladiators just winning the crowd over.

“It’s good to hear that TD Garden silent when you’re playing well. They still respect great basketball. So, regardless of the attention that has been paid to what it’s going to be like on my end, I have a group to lead that’s going to be looking to me for a voice of peace and to be able to control what I can control and also help them through it.”

From Irving’s perspective, if TD Garden is quiet as a mouse, that’s a good thing for the Mavs.

“So, I’ll take the brunt of it, of all the yells and stuff like that and all the remarks,” Irving said. “But I’ve been able to grow since then and acknowledge that I just can handle things better, especially when I want to have to put the majority of my energy towards playing well.

“I can’t just be getting into it with fans like that, even though it may be fun at times. But it’s a waste of energy, it’s a waste of my time, it’s also a waste of my talent trying to answer questions from the past that people have.”

Instead, Irving is laser focused on the future and on trying to help the Mavs win the franchise’s second NBA title. He also admits that his life is much different now than it was when he was playing for the Celtics, and that the Mavs and city of Dallas has afforded him with a different and comfortable lifestyle that’s very suitable for him and his family.

“When I say emotional journey, it’s just part of being human, and I know we throw these words out in the media when we’re talking very conversational like this,” Irving said. “I think what I mean, I’ll explain, just the point that I’m at now in my life is I have kids, I have a wife, I have responsibilities that are bigger than the game of basketball, so it’s easy to put the game of basketball in perspective.

“When I was a little bit younger, I wanted to strive to be one of the best in the world and that’s all I thought about every single day. And that’s where I had all my eggs in the basket. So, there was no normal life outside of the game of basketball other than doing what young NBA players do, which is getting into some stuff they shouldn’t be getting into and being around people that don’t necessarily reflect the moral values that you want to have embodying as a person.”

Irving won an NBA title with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, but multiple injuries when he played for Boston derailed the chances of him delivering a championship to the Celtics.

“It was just a chapter in my life that I got to enjoy for the most part,” Irving said, referring to his days playing for the Celtics. “We had a great opportunity to do some special things, but it was cut short just based off personal reasons on my end. The one thing I look back on my time in Boston — and I’ve said this over the past few years, but somehow it gets tossed in the rug.

“But the greatest thing I learned from Boston was just being able to manage not only my emotions, but just what’s going on in a day-to-day basis of being a leader of a team or being one of the leaders and having young guys around you that have their own goals. But you have to learn how to put the big picture first.”

When Irving arrived in Boston, Jayson Tatum was a 19-year rookie and was the third overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft out of Duke. And Jaylen Brown was 20 years old and entering his second NBA season. Today, Tatum and Brown are perennial All-Stars who are standing in the way of Irving and the Mavs trying to achieve their goal.

“Leading those guys — JT and JB and some of the guys that are still remaining on that team like Al Horford, or Marcus Smart got traded away — we had a great time to bond and a great time to go through some tough times, not just on the court,” Irving said.  “(Tatum and Brown have) improved tremendously. They made it through All-Star games since I left, (Eastern Conference Finals) MVPs. I’m proud of those guys for what they’ve been able to do.

“I tried to give as much advice while I was there, and also when I went to Brooklyn and came to Dallas. Just being able to extend brother-to-brother relationship with them, letting them know I had their back no matter what. This basketball stuff is going to be competitive no matter what. We’re going to go at each other, but getting to know them as human beings, they’re really special people, alongside other people that I got a chance to know at the Boston organization.”

To show the level of love and respect he has for Irving, Brown wore Irving’s sneakers during this past February’s All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis.

“I’ve taken them under my wing in a very different way and they’ve allowed me to do that while also becoming who they are,” Irving said, referring to Brown and Tatum. “I told them from day one when I first met them that I want to see them be better than me, and in order to do that you have to give them the secrets of the game. You have to give them mental secrets as well to help them become a better player.

“I think those guys were ultra talented – JT and JB. But just like myself, they were learning how to win, they were learning how to selflessly approach the game every single day. And that led us to part of our closeness and our relationship. I think the other side is we had some real life circumstances that we connected to that, again, no one knows about and that’s the most important thing than just trying to display it to the media, to everyone in the world and to fans that, ‘Hey, we’re still close and we still are brothers.’ “

While Irving is still considered one of the greatest players in the world, he paused to acknowledge the numerous life lessons basketball has taught him.

“I represent so many walks of life, so many different religions, so many different cultures that have supported me, so I tried to put basketball, like I said, in that perspective,” he said. “But I won’t deny that it is a connector, it is a unifier and it brings so many different people to the table that have something to say, because they love basketball or they love to criticize it or they love to be a part of the culture. It’s a trillion-dollar industry as well. There’s a lot of people making some money from it that I also like to pay my respects to, because they have their job in this too and it helps me to relate to all those that are part of this and love it for the right reasons.

“So, that’s where I feel like I’m at a place in my life where I’m connected to people because they love the sport, they love the craft, but also they have a journey to share about how the craft has changed their life and how they’re continuing to spread positivity through their messaging. So, that’s the most important thing I’d like to put in perspective through all this. Those life lessons are just centered around just being a good person having integrity and being honest and rising out of the ashes like a phoenix. I want the next generation to use me as an example of whatever you want – not everyone – but what some people tried to do to destroy my confidence, destroy my character, destroy who I was, and it didn’t work. It failed miserably and I’m grateful that I’m still here standing, because I’m not alone anymore.”

After two seasons with the Celtics, Irving signed a free agent contract with the Brooklyn Nets on July 7, 2019. Then, the Mavs acquired Irving in a trade with the Nets on Feb. 6, 2023.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen how Irving’s relationship with Tatum and Brown manifests itself on the court as this series progresses.

“It’s going to be adversarial on the court, it’s going to be very competitive,” Irving said. “But off the court, I mean, we know our family know each other’s families.

“And that’s the type of relationship I’ve always wanted outside of the game of basketball is to be able to have that balance to compete with people on the court, but also treat them like my brothers and be there for them in whatever they need.”

When the Mavs punched their ticket to the NBA Finals last Thursday with a 124-103 series-closing victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, did either Tatum or Brown reach out and congratulate Irving on clinching his fifth appearance on the league’s biggest stage?

“No, I don’t expect them to,” Irving said with laughter. “I wasn’t reaching out to them (when the Celtics won the Eastern Conference title). In this basketball sphere, there is still some competition that we like to have that’s healthy.

“But then outside of this, of course those are my brothers. But we’re both going after the same goal. So, we should be that way when we are on our journeys.”

X: @DwainPrice