Tag: Kyrie Irving

Ranking the best No. 2 guys in NBA history

HoopsHype ranks the best No. 2 second-fiddle players in NBA history, including Dwyane Wade, Scottie Pippen, Kyrie Irving and much more.

There’s no shame in being the second-best player on an NBA team, especially if the player ahead of you on the pecking order is an all-time great and your team is doing a lot of winning in the process.

For some players, accepting the No. 2 role on a team is more difficult than it is for others. One player on this list even took the second-fiddle role on his own team after becoming a superstar and winning a championship with that same team.

Below, we present the best No. 2 guys in NBA history, the best Robins to all-time great Batmans.

2024-25 Dallas Mavericks: A quick preview

Led by perennial MVP candidate Luka Doncic and eight-time All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, the Dallas Mavericks are poised as serious contenders this season. With improved depth, they look even more dangerous than the last time around. By shedding $29 …

Led by perennial MVP candidate Luka Doncic and eight-time All-Star guard Kyrie Irving, the Dallas Mavericks are poised as serious contenders this season. With improved depth, they look even more dangerous than the last time around.

By shedding $29 million in salary from Tim Hardaway Jr and Josh Green, general manager Nico Harrison was able to add key pieces like Klay Thompson and Naji Marshall, ensuring Dallas remains an offensive powerhouse. Thompson, one of the game’s greatest shooters, joins Doncic and Irving to form a potentially lethal offensive trio. The floor spacing from Thompson and Irving will make it difficult for defenses to double-team Doncic without leaving open shooters.

Defensively, after acquiring Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington Jr., the Mavericks showed they could be a top defensive unit. Last year’s rookie standout Dereck Lively II, who impressed in the playoffs, and Marshall, replacing Derrick Jones Jr., will play key roles in maintaining a balanced attack on both ends of the court. With a strong core and key additions, Dallas is prepared for another deep playoff run and a legitimate championship push.

Watch the moment Jayson Tatum found out he’d be on the cover of NBA 2K25

Netflix released the “Starting 5” documentary on Wednesday, including the moment Jayson Tatum discovered he’d be on the cover of NBA 2K25.

Former Duke basketball star [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] will be on the cover of NBA 2K25, and Netflix captured the moment he heard the news.

In a new documentary “Starting 5”, which premiered this week, Tatum’s son, Deuce, walked up to him with a birthday present. The Boston Celtics star opened it up to find a piece of paper revealing that he’d be on the cover, prompting Tatum to drop his head into his hand.

“To share that moment with my mini-me and my best friend, that is a special moment I had with Deuce,” Tatum said in the narration.

Tatum won his first NBA championship with the Celtics this year, defeating fellow Blue Devils [autotag]Kyrie Irving[/autotag] and [autotag]Dereck Lively II[/autotag] in the Finals. Tatum led Boston in points, rebounds, and assists throughout the playoffs, joining a historic list of players to accomplish that feat, before heading to Paris to win his second consecutive Olympic gold medal.

Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor name their all-time Duke basketball starting five

Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor, the two returning Duke basketball starters, named their all-time Blue Devils starting five on Wednesday.

When a basketball program has as many legends as the Duke Blue Devils, it’s incredibly fun to debate which five players would create the best starting lineup.

On Wednesday, returning starters Caleb Foster and Tyrese Proctor became the latest players to build their all-time Blue Devils lineup.

Proctor went first and named Kyrie Irving, JJ Redick, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, and Christian Laettner as his team.

Laettner, of course, helped Duke win consecutive national championships in 1991 and 1992, and he’s still the school’s all-time leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament. Irving, the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft, won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and returned to the Finals with the Dallas Mavericks this past season, where he lost to Tatum and the Boston Celtics.

Tatum, who made his third straight First Team All-NBA squad, also made program history as the first Duke men’s basketball alum to win multiple Olympic gold medals in Paris this summer.

Foster also included Irving and Williamson in his starting five, but he added Jason Williams and Orlando Magic star Paolo Banchero to his lineup. The most recent of five No. 1 NBA draft picks in school history, Banchero led the Magic to the playoffs this past season.

Foster also earned some potential points with the Duke staff when he included head coach Jon Scheyer, who won a national championship with the Blue Devils as a player in 2010, on his team.

Top-ranked freshman Cooper Flagg answered the same question on The Brotherhood Podcast this summer, and he went with the same lineup that Proctor rolled out.

Jayson Tatum predicts NBA Finals rematch with Kyrie Irving and Dereck Lively II

During a Wednesday appearance on The Tonight Show, Jayson Tatum predicted an NBA Finals rematch against two fellow Blue Devils next season.

The NBA Finals earlier this summer featured a trio of Blue Devils as former Duke basketball star [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] won his first championship with the Boston Celtics. According to Tatum, fans shouldn’t be surprised if there’s more of the same next summer.

During a Wednesday night appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Tatum predicted that his Celtics would face the Dallas Mavericks again in the 2025 NBA Finals.

“It’s going to be a rematch,” Tatum told Fallon. “We’re going to play Dallas again.”

The Mavericks, whom Boston beat in five games during the championship series, featured former Blue Devils [autotag]Kyrie Irving[/autotag] and [autotag]Dereck Lively II[/autotag]. Irving, who won a ring with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, averaged 22.1 points and 5.1 assists per game in the postseason while Lively put up 7.9 points and 7.4 rebounds as a rookie.

Tatum led the Celtics with 25.0 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game through the postseason en route to the title.

https://twitter.com/FallonTonight/status/1834085573050446266

The Mavericks reached the Finals as the fifth seed in the Western Conference last season, so this prediction likely banks on either Irving and superstar guard Luka Doncic taking a step forward as a duo with a full offseason under their belts or Lively emerging as an All-Star caliber big in year two. However, Dallas did beat the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves to reach the championship series, so they proved their postseason mettle.

Nets receive lower grade for Kyrie Irving trade after re-evaluation

The Brooklyn Nets are getting a lower grade for trading Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks during the 2022-23 season for good reasons.

The Brooklyn Nets began their process of entering a rebuild during the 2022-23 season when they traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks. Though Brooklyn only ended up trading Irving because the two sides could not come to terms on a contract extension, it seems that the trade doesn’t look as good more than one year later.

In a recent article by Bleacher Report’s NBA staff in which they re-graded some of the biggest trades in the league over the past five years, the Nets did not come out as good for the Irving. In fact, compared to the grade they received when the Irving trade initially happened, it seems that Brooklyn is receiving a significant downgrade for the deal.

When B/R first gave their grade of the Irving trade, the Nets received an A+ due to their return of guard Spencer Dinwiddie, forward Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick, and second-round picks in 2027 and 2029 in exchange for Irving and forward Markieff Morris. However, with the re-grade, the Nets are now getting just a B for the deal.

This makes sense given that most around the NBA agreed with the Nets trading Irving away given that he was mostly unavailable for Brooklyn due to injuries and extracurricular activities that happened during his tenure.

Where this grade ends up changing for both sides is that Irving ended up re-signing with the Mavericks following the 2022-23 season and played a huge role in Dallas getting to the NBA Finals for the 2023-24 season before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games.

With Dinwiddie no longer with the Nets and Finney-Smith most likely playing for another team at some point during this upcoming season, there is still time for the grade to improve depending on the return. So far, Brooklyn was able to use Dinwiddie to acquire Dennis Schroder from the Toronto Raptors last season and could use Finney-Smith to get one first-round pick and possibly a young player as well.

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Which Boston Celtics alum is the NBA’s biggest career earner from Melbourne, Australia?

We think that this particular player might be the easiest yet for a lot of you to guess.

Which Boston Celtics alum is the NBA’s biggest career earner from Melbourne, Australia? We think that this particular player might be the easiest yet for a lot of you to guess. But ironically, he might well be among the least-liked Celtics alumni of all time, given how he left the team.

If you have yet to figure out who we are talking about, we aren’t too sure there’s a more obvious clue out there. But you probably guessed that it is Kyrie Irving, with $274,811,186 in career earnings to date. He will probably hang onto that status as Melbourne’s most remunerated player in the league, but Ben Simmons ($163,525,665) is a respectable distance behind.

Following Simmons is Andrew Bogut with $118,591,363, and then Dante Exum with $49,125,425 in career earnings in the Association to date.

Last of the top five earners from Melbourne is Luc Longley with $42,784,900.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Where does Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving rank on the list of Boston sports villains?

The former Celtics guard is among the most disliked opponents faced by a Boston team, but is he the biggest New England sports villain?

It is no surprise that fans of the Boston Celtics are very much not fans of former Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving. Most dislike him for how he left Boston. Some dislike his penchant for conspiracy theories; others for his aloofness and ire toward the media. Others base their distaste on his position on public health issues, his treatment of logos, or just because he is on another team.

But it is safe to say the New Jersey native is among the bigger New England sports villains currently playing a sport, regardless of the rationale behind the animus, perhaps even after the Celtics won Banner 18.

But where does he rank in the wider constellation of New England sports villains?

John Tomase, Tom Giles and Cedric Maxwell were joined by Phil Perry on the NBS Sports Boston “Early Edition” show to sort where Irving ranks as a local villain when he was still with the Brooklyn Nets.

Has the ire subsided since, in your opinion?

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Could the Nets have swapped Kyrie Irving for Mavericks’ Jalen Brunson?

The Brooklyn Nets could have been able to swap Kyrie Irving for Jalen Brunson before trading Irving to the Dallas Mavericks?

The Brooklyn Nets are in the middle of their latest rebuild as they are looking to find their next superstar or two in the upcoming NBA Drafts. The hope is that Brooklyn can find a player that they can develop in-house, but there is one player that could have been with the franchise if certain events went differently.

ESPN’s Tim MacMahon recently went on the “Knicks Film School Podcast” with Jonathan Macri to discuss various topics related to the New York Knicks after everything that has happened this summer. One of the talking points that came up was whether the Nets could have gotten Knicks star Jalen Brunson in a trade for Kyrie Irving during the 2022-23 season with the Dallas Mavericks.

“The funny thing is, if Brunson signs that extension with Dallas, I think there is a high likelihood that he would be with the Brooklyn Nets right now,” MacMahon said. MacMahon is giving his opinion here, but it is interesting to hear these comments from him given that the Mavericks are part of his coverage for ESPN so it’s possible that there could be some chatter behind what he’s saying.

“Mark Cuban has always been about chasing stars,” MacMahon explained. But, I think there’s a decent chance that Jalen Brunson would have been moved to Brooklyn with Kyrie Irving still ending up in Dallas.” During the 2022-23 campaign, the Nets traded Irving to the Mavericks after the two sides were unable to come to terms on a contract extension and Brooklyn received Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith along with draft picks.

To add to this revisited moment, the Mavericks had the chance to offer Brunson a four-year, $55 million deal prior to when he broke out with the Mavericks during the 2021-22 season. As Brunson explained on the “All The Smoke” podcast with former NBA players Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, Dallas wanted to wait to give Brunson the extension and after that, it seemed that Brunson wanted to go elsewhere which is how he ended up signing with New York in free-agency the following summer.

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Duke basketball star Cooper Flagg puts together his all-time Blue Devils starting five

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, Cooper Flagg put together his all-time starting five for the Duke basketball program.

During a Tuesday episode of The Brotherhood Podcast, incoming freshman [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag] got asked the hardest question a Duke basketball fan can face.

Who’s your all-time Blue Devils starting five?

Despite the litany of options on the table, Flagg actually put his lineup together pretty quickly. He settled on [autotag]Kyrie Irving[/autotag] at point guard, [autotag]JJ Redick[/autotag] at shooting guard, [autotag]Jayson Tatum[/autotag] and [autotag]Zion Williamson[/autotag] as his forwards, and [autotag]Christian Laettner[/autotag] at center.

It’s hard to imagine an all-time Duke starting lineup without two-time national champions Grant Hill or Bobby Hurley, but Flagg’s selections all have strong arguments. Irving and Williamson both went No. 1 overall in their respective NBA drafts, two of five Duke basketball players taken with the first pick.

Tatum might already be the best Blue Devil of all time at the professional level with three All-NBA First Team selections, an NBA title, and a potential second Olympic gold medal on the way at just 26 years old.

Redick remains Duke’s all-time leading scorer, and his 26.8 points per game as a senior in 2005-06 still sits untouched as the single-season school record.

Laettner, of course, needs the least explanation of anyone on the list with his back-to-back championships and the buzzer-beater against Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight. He’s scored more points in NCAA Tournament action than any other Blue Devil.