Mavericks’ Jason Kidd reveals Kyrie Irving’s ‘hardest’ admission after Thunder series

DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks’ 117-116 Game 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday was a fitting ending to the series. Oklahoma City and Dallas battled throughout. It was a hard-fought series that led to Mavs star Kyrie Irving making an eye-opening admission.

While speaking to reporters after the game, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd revealed that Irving told him “this is the hardest thing that I’ve ever gone through.”

“He (Irving) actually said that to me, ‘this is the hardest thing that I’ve ever gone through.’ So I said, ‘is it? Well you did win a championship. It was easy?’ I said, ‘it’s cool. Actually this will be a great story to be able to tell your kids, how hard it really is to win.’ Nothing comes easy in life,” Kidd said. “I just told him to just put this up there with some of the hardest things you’re gonna have to grind through… Yes, he’s probably exhausted. Yes, he probably felt like he could have made a couple shots. But he did his part to help the team win on the defensive end and also accepted the double-teams.

“When you look at this series, yes he didn’t have the offensive explosion but he was the glue in this series. He kept everybody together, he kept everybody positive. Yes, it was the hardest thing but it only gets harder. And that’s what makes it fun for the great ones.”

Kyrie Irving is a great player. As Kidd mentioned, Kyrie did not have an “offensive explosion” against the Thunder. Still, he found ways to contribute in an important manner.

Overall, Irving averaged 15.7 points and 6.2 assists per game in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Kyrie Irving’s postgame speech after hard-fought series