Timberwolves 'almost' ruined my column

Minnesota ruined my column. With the Timberwolves down 3-0 and set to play the Mavs this past Tuesday night in the Western Conference Finals, I had mentally formulated my NBA Finals preview and even had parts of it already written. Then Minnesota went and, with no consideration for me and my needs, won game four.

I jumped the gun and assumed the NBA Finals had arrived. It was Dallas versus Boston, or was it Boston versus Kyrie? I guess that depended on your perspective.

If you are a Celtics fan, I imagine it might be as important to not lose to Kyrie in the Finals than it would be to beat Dallas… assuming of course it is Dallas the Celtics face ultimately for a title. Fans have not forgotten when he sage’d Boston’s home court and “stomped” on the Celtics midcourt mascot.

Those are not my words. I am very fortunate to only have one Celtics fan that I communicate with and, when I reached out to him for his thoughts, he confirmed that he would “never forget when he stomped on Lucky” and that not losing to Kyrie would be more important to him than beating Dallas. Surely, it has nothing to do with Kyrie not winning a championship while he was in Boston, despite them expecting him to.

Say what you want about Irving, and there’s plenty to say, but that fella is polarizing. People have strong opinions on him, good and bad.

Nobody that has watched him play can deny his basketball abilities. He has what is considered by most experts to be the best handles of any player in history and even after 13 seasons, he is playing some of his best basketball.

Kyrie Irving once got in an argument with Kobe Bryant about which of them would win if they played one-on-one. Do you appreciate how good you have to be at basketball to even be able to have had that conversation with Kobe Bryant? I saw footage of the argument. Kyrie didn’t think he could beat Kobe, he knew it.

He’s also been, as far as any of us can see, a stellar teammate this year and a vital part of this incredible and surprising second half of the season run for the Mavs. You can argue whether they should or not, but many folks still won’t root for him because they remember the old Kyrie and how he used to talk and act.

The same can be said for the Celtics though. Folks remember how they “used” to talk and act and still haven’t forgiven them. I know I’m playing loose and fast with that past tense there as if Boston doesn’t still talk and act in a way sometimes that should make you grimace. I also know they’re not alone, but they earned their reputation just like Kyrie did.

Of course, all of this talk about Kyrie Irving and a potential Dallas and Boston matchup in the finals is assuming that Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t become aggressive and help Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves make history. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I have to find something new to write about after they ruined my column. If you have any ideas, please email me.