Dallas All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving nearly came to blows with a Boston rival during the 2024 NBA Finals.
Although it didn't end with a championship, the Dallas Mavericks' charmed run to the 2024 NBA Finals seemed to be a harbinger of things to come.
The Mavericks fell in five games to the 64-18 Boston Celtics.
With a deep, versatile roster built around All-Star guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, Dallas appeared primed to contend for titles for at least the next half-decade.
Instead, having grown impatient with a lingering Doncic calf injury, Dallas general manager Nico Harrison flipped the five-time All-NBA First Teamer to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for a package headlined by 10-time All-Star power forward/center Anthony Davis, a perpetual injury risk six years Doncic's senior.
Boston, too, is going through some major growing pains just two years later. Six-time All-Star power forward Jayson Tatum could miss the entire 2025-26 season while recovering from an Achilles tendon tear, so Celtics president Brad Stevens traded away the contracts of starting center Kristaps Porzingis and starting guard Jrue Holiday to slash his luxury tax bill next season.
That 2024 Finals encounter feels more anomalous by the day.
Now, new details of just how chippy things got are starting to emerge.
Irving himself admitted that he nearly came to blows with a Boston rival during the Finals.
During a live stream with four-time Celtics All-Star swingman Jaylen Brown, his one-time teammate-turned-Finals rival, Irving explained that tensions between himself and Boston reserve guard Payton Pritchard nearly boiled over at one point in the series.
Kyrie Irving said he thought about swinging on Payton Pritchard in last years NBA Finals💀 pic.twitter.com/CzfmtVzUWS
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 15, 2025
“We were going to halftime. I ain’t gonna lie to you, I thought about swinging. One time, just to see where he was at. I thought about swinging one time,” Irving revealed. ” He would not touch. I thought about swinging half-court shot that happens two times.”
At another point in their extensive conversation, Irving looked back on his early years with the Celtics. Boston acquired him during the 2017 offseason, when he had demanded a trade away from LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers following three consecutive NBA Finals appearances.
Kyrie talked about some of his best memories as a member of the Boston Celtics on stream 👀 pic.twitter.com/QLyu7ClTU7
— Kyrie Center (@kyriecenterig) July 13, 2025
“It was so exciting. My dad had gone to school right up the street. My mom graduated from [Boston University] as well,” Irving said. “So, first getting there, the excitement, being able to put on the Boston Celtics uniform, that was crazy.”
Irving, Brown, and a young Jayson Tatum enjoyed some solid postseason success together, but the 6-foot-2 soon tired of his new environs, and joined the Brooklyn Nets in free agency with good friends Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan. On a third straight team, Irving forced his way out of town, demanding to be dealt elsewhere in 2022-23. Brooklyn complied, shipping him to the Mavericks.
The Duke product seems to be more settled in Dallas, despite near-constant roster churn. While recovering from an ACL tear, Irving declined his $43 million player option for 2025-26 to ink a longer-term three-year, $119 million agreement.
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Category: Basketball
