The best damn player to ever touch a basketball! - Perk on Kyrie's X-Factor | NBA Today

So Kyrie Irving is just the third player in the last 60 seasons to face a former team in the finals after previously making All-NBA for that team, and you've heard of the other two. LeBron, of course, faced the Heat in the 2020 bubble, and then Wilt Chamberlain took on the Warriors. That was back in 1967. So here's Kyrie on being back in Boston. I've experienced Boston in two-fold. My first few years being in the NBA playing for the Cavs, then coming here to Boston and being right down the street in Brooklyn, and then now being here in the finals playing against them in the potential four- to seven-game series, you just got to breathe through it. To all my youngins out there that are dealing with some of the crowd reactions and what they're saying to you, you have to breathe and realize that this is not as hostile as you think it is. Don't overthink it, and I've been able to work through that and understand that some of that is anxiety, some of that is nervousness, and it could all be turned into a strength. There's no fear out here, man. It's basketball. The fans are going to say what they're going to say. I appreciate them and their relationship they have to the game, but it's about the players at the end of the day. So I had a chance to catch up with Kyrie Irving earlier today, and you can hear the conversation later today on SportsCenter, but I asked him how he thinks he's going to be received by fans in Boston, and he said that, I can't spend my mental energy thinking about that because that face, you know how he's going to probably be received by his fans. Yeah, who gives a damn how he's going to be received? He don't care. Players don't care. Look, I played here in 01, and Jason Kidd was not received well here, and we were down 2-1. They win a big game. We were up 25, going into the fourth, lose it. They're up 2-1. We go on to win three games. If you allow this energy to affect you, like, look, Kyrie played at Duke. Any place Duke ever went, the crowd was going nuts. Kyrie has always been at that high level. If you allow the noise to distract you, then that's your own issue, and that's something that you have to work on, but I love that Kyrie is like, hey, I'm telling my young guys it's this and that. Not one person out there is going to be on the floor. If you're worried about Jason, if you're worried about the crowd and Jason Tatum is running up, you're worried about the wrong thing, and I think Kyrie understands that, and the great players that I've been around have understood that. The crowd's going to be amazing. They're going to be intense, but I don't think that great players should let a crowd affect you. They need to leave him alone, right, because it's not just Kyrie Irving that they're dealing with. They're dealing with Luka, because both of those guys are tied together like shoelaces, okay? We've been hearing the reports, seeing how their brotherhood and how they got love for one another, and Luka is the one who's going to feed off of that energy that's going to go towards Kyrie. That's a dangerous thing, and we know that a guy that thrives in those moments, we've seen it this postseason, how he just picks on people or figure out, hey, I don't like you. I don't like you, so I'm going to go at you. They're not even on the floor, and like Kyrie Irving said it perfectly, look, at the end of the day, the game is won between the lines, right? It's us against the Celtics, who's going to match up, and so, look, man, they're talking about the most talented backcourt of all time. Leave them alone. You think that Luka and Kyrie are the most talented backcourt of all time? Talented? Yes. Talented, yes. I wouldn't say the best backcourt. The most talented. Talent-wise, yes. Yeah, complete top to bottom. Go ahead. No, no. I was going to say this. With Jason Kidd in that one year that we had here, to Perk's point, we all surrounded our best player. We were like, oh, you want to mess with him, then you're messing with all of us, and so, like, that's just kind of the mentality that you have to take in a team atmosphere. And being around the team today, it seems like they have all embraced that role. Kyrie's let them know what's up. He seems like he's in a wonderful place, and he is very, very focused right now, but you played with Kyrie Irving. LeBron James said recently not only does he think he's one of the most gifted players that he's ever played with, but he's also the ultimate wild card. And so, in order to get the best out of this Dallas Mavericks team, they're going to need everything that Kyrie has, because Boston, just on paper, is the more talented team. They have a lot to overcome here. Oh, not on paper. On the court, they're the more talented team. They're the more talented team, and that's just respect to them. But when I say about Kyrie, and we talk about him being an X Factor, because we know that there's not a human being out there that can truly guard Kyrie. Well, yeah. That's what Drew Holiday said. How do you stop him? Pray. Yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. He's shooting left-hand hook shots from three to win games. He's hit one of the biggest shots in NBA history in Game 7. There is no moment that's too big for him. What I will say about a guy like Kyrie is I'm looking forward to seeing how he's managing this series. Right? Is he going to be aggressive early? Is he going to defer and get guys like P.J. Washington going, then be aggressive in the second half? I'm not sure, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he manages it. Well, look. First of all, he's the most skilled player to ever touch the damn basketball. That's my opinion on Kyrie Irving. If he was 6'6", he'd arguably be the best player to ever touch the damn basketball, but he's not 6'6". But, look. Kyrie Irving, what have we praised so much about for us, praised him about for us in this postseason? His leadership. So he knows coming into this moment, his leadership is going to have to be at an all-time high. That's why he's setting the tone right now and saying, I'm not fazed by this Boston crowd because he know he have a lot of guys. Well, the rest of his teammates, they never been on this stage before. And walking into a hostile environment outside of Luka, he got to make sure he's at his best. I believe he will for us leadership-wise, and I believe this is why we're going to get a great series. And he said the message that he's giving his teammates is don't take this for granted. There's guys that have played 5, 10, 15 years in the NBA and have never been on the stage. We talked about how many finals you guys have been in, nine combined? You won two championships, but that's how hard it is. You got there nine times and you each won one. This is a difficult stage to get to. It's a difficult stage to perform on. I'm not sure whether or not they changed the light bulbs in the TV garden. But this is when the lights are the brightest.