Isaiah Thomas says Irving and Doncic are two best players in NBA Finals; Drake bets half a million on Dallas

Former Boston Celtics All-NBA guard Isaiah Thomas enthusiastically declared that the Dallas Mavericks have the best duo in the NBA Finals. When asked if that means he believes even Kyrie Irving is better than Jayson Tatum, Thomas said yes. Thomas has previously stated that anyone that doesn't have Irving in their NBA Top 20 all-time shouldn't be talking basketball, so this isn't that shocking.

Thomas, who played one game for the Dallas Mavericks in 2022, was a teammate of Jaylen Brown's the latter's rookie season and was still on the team when Jayson Tatum was drafted. Ironically while Thomas still holds ill will towards the Celtics for not backing up the "Brinks Truck" and instead trading him, his love for Kyrie kind of defends Danny Ainge's decision even more.

If Thomas thinks Irving is Top 20 all-time, you'd imagine he would have traded an injured, undersized guard heading into his 30's who was demanding a max contract for such a player correct?

Thomas, who had lobbied to return to the Celtics a few times since his journeyman NBA days, doesn't seem to be bleeding a lot of green nowadays. That and/or he objectively truly believes the Dallas duo are both better than Tatum and Brown, which of course is his prerogative. Thomas was also still claiming in recent years he was still as good a player as he was during his Celtics tenure, so he's not always been the best judge.

Thomas has hinted that he might have to show up at an NBA Finals game this year. If it's in Boston, he will receive an enormous ovation. If it's in Dallas, then not so much. And that would also be telling. For his part, due to the Celtics stronger overall starting 5, Thomas is still predicting the Celtics win the series.

Not sure when was the last time that an NBA team won a championship while the opposition had the two best players on the court (Pistons over Kobe/Shaq? Mavs over James/Wade?), but we shall see. NBA betting odds like the NBA guide from The Punters Page all have the Celtics as heavy favorites for the 2024 Finals which tips off tonight at 8:30. This has led to quite a lot of people betting on the Mavs to win.

Not sure if anyone has passed the $1 million mark, but recording artist and famous Raptors (among other NBA teams) fan Drake has reportedly bet $500,000 on Dallas to win the series.

In terms of betting favorites to win the NBA Finals MVP award, Tatum is the prevailing favorite, followed by Doncic and then Brown. Jaylen of course is coming off an Eastern Conference where he won the Larry Bird award, which is given to the MVP of that series.

Further down the NBA Finals MVP list comes Irving and Celtics' big man Kristaps Porzingis and guard Derrick White. Boston's Jrue Holiday, who won a championship previously with the Milwaukee Bucks is considered a long shot, with center Al Horford an even longer one. Six of the top eight are Celtics.

This spring 2024 has become quite the comeback season for Kyrie Irving who left three teams on bad terms and was extremely hard for his last team to get any value for in a trade. It seems that many analysts and fans are prisoners of then moment with Irving and have forgotten all about his past team destroying issues.

Below is the schedule for the NBA Finals:

disqus Post a Comment
Share