After last year’s disappointment, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks are in the NBA Finals.

The Mavs acquired Irving at last year’s trade deadline, hoping to make a deep run into the playoffs. However, the Mavs went cold and missed postseason basketball.

However, they have returned impressively this season and are only four wins away from their first title since 2011 against Irving’s old team, the Boston Celtics.

LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers & Kyrie Irving #11 of the Dallas Mavericks watch the game on January 17, 2024 at Crypto.Com Arena in Los Angeles, California. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

Irving came to Boston after playing with LeBron James in Cleveland, and the duo won a title in 2016. Irving headed East, however, and when things unraveled there (and later in Brooklyn) , he landed in Dallas.

A lot has been speculated about James and Irving’s relationship since that Celtics-Cavs trade, but James has nothing but love for his former teammate.

“There’s nothing on the basketball floor that Kyrie can’t do. And sitting here watching it, I thought, I’m playing, so happy and so proud to see him continue to grow and whatever the case may be, and at the same time, I’m so angry that I don’t also his running mate,” James said on his podcast with his soon-to-be head coach. JJ Redick.

LeBron and Kyrie with Cleveland

Kyrie Irving #2 and LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrate after Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals on June 9, 2017 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

James added that he was “disappointed” that the Los Angeles Lakers did not get him on time and was even more complimentary of Irving.

“I have so many words to praise Kyrie but in the end I have absolutely none, because he is the most talented player the NBA has ever seen,” James quipped. “He has the greatest talent I have ever seen of any NBA player. I’ve never seen a guy in my NBA life feel like he sometimes shoots the ball better with his dominant hand than he does with his primary hand. If Kyrie comes out in a game with his right hand, he will actually only play with his left hand. I have never seen anything like it.”

Kyrie Irving celebrates

Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) reacts as teammate Tim Hardaway Jr. runs up after Irving scored the game-winning goal to end the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in Dallas, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

The NBA Finals begin Thursday in Boston, who are looking for their first title in 16 years.

Source Foxnews