NFL
By Steve Atkinson
This isn’t like the old NBA when rivals and players hated each other when it came down to business. The NBA Finals start Thursday and look who’s back in town for the Western Conference Champions. Kyrie Irving. When I went to the Dallas Mavericks game on March 1st every time Kyrie touched the ball the fans were chanting Kyrie Sucks, or booing. Get more of that starting on Thursday. Question is can the Celtics put aside their personal feelings of Kyrie during the Finals. I think Jaylen Brown can but I don’t think Jayson Tatum will.
Brown, has shown the entire playoffs he wants a championship and I think he wants it more than Tatum. He was MVP of the Easter Conference Finals for a reason. Can the Celtics fans handle the fact that Tatum won’t leave the buddy stuff with Kyrie aside and focus on winning the championship? He’s the best player right? What if Jaylen Brown wins MVP of the Finals? Which could be a possibility. What does that say of Tatum? That Brown is more clutch? All those questions will be answered during the Finals.
The Boston Celtics have no excuse of losing the NBA Finals. They should beat the Mavericks in six games if they lose the Finals then the Celtics season is a failure period. The team is loaded, the bench is deep, and Porzingis is back. The road to the Finals was a cakewalk please don’t lose to Kyrie and the Mavericks.
Here is what Jayson Tatum said this week about why it didn’t work with Kyrie.
Jayson Tatum Loves Kyrie Irving Can Celtics Fans Handle It?
Here is Tatum on playing with Kyrie
Obviously, there were some ups and downs. But I think, for me, being a first, second-year player, being around a superstar, essentially, every day and seeing how to navigate that space,” Tatum told reporters. “And then obviously on the court, he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen. So it seems like a very long time ago but I’ve got a lot of great memories from having Kai as a teammate. It does seem like Dallas, obviously, has been a great fit,” Tatum said. “They’re in the NBA Finals. The staff and the team, they all just kind of jelled together and it’s great. It’s great to see Kai out there playing at an extremely high level, doing all the special things that we love to see him do, and have fun doing it.”
Notice how he has a nickname for him which is fine if you’re playing against each other in a regular season game. It’s also fine to wish him well and root for him in Dallas. But again it’s Finals week. Do you think Tom Brady would ever say that during Super Bowl week about Matt Ryan? No, Tatum could’ve said we’re not friends this week we’re focused on winning the championship. He didn’t he doesn’t have it in him. The real test begins tomorrow for Tatum especially more so than the rest of the team.
The X-Factor for this series is Jaylen Brown if he plays like he played the entire playoffs he’ll be the Finals MVP. My series winner is Boston in Six games.
Jrue Holiday has won a championship before and I think will be a key factor in this series too. Even with Porzingis not at 100% I think the Celtics are deep enough to win the series. The question is can Tatum put his friendship aside with Kyrie for a month? We’ll see starting Thursday.
