“[Kyrie Irving] is probably the most talented scorer I think I have ever seen,” Jeff Teague declared as the Club 520 Podcast crew discussed the Christmas Day matchup between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Dallas Mavericks. Co-host Bishop Henn pointed out how Kyrie Irving saved the game at American Airlines Center from being a blowout for the Wolves.
Advertisement
The 32-year-old’s 39-point outburst limited the damage to a six-point loss. “Unbelievable,” Teague added, “He can just do pretty much everything on the basketball court. He post up at 6 foot. I mean he just unbelievable.”
The former Milwaukee Bucks star then moved on to the incident that warranted such a valiant effort from Kyrie that night. “Them losing Luka [Doncic] is going to be a challenge. I think they going through a stretch where they need him. I think they got the right team to make it to the Western Conference Finals to the Championship,” Teague said.
However, he expressed his concerns about Luka‘s injury being a calf strain. Doncic had to leave in the second quarter on Christmas Day due to a calf-related issue. It was later revealed that the Mavericks superstar will be sidelined with a calf strain for at least a month.
“Same thing happened to KD…Calf, Calf, Calf, next thing you know, his Achilles pops up. They gonna have to be real real careful on how they move forward with him. Two calf strains in one year is crazy,” Teague warned. The former NBA star pointed out that repeated injuries in the calf region often weakens other parts of the leg, which then become vulnerable to serious injuries.
The Mavericks are fourth in the West with a 19-11 record. So they won’t be panicking anytime soon with their premier star out with injury, especially with Kyrie there to man the fort as the interim leader. Teague predicted that Dallas will be very careful before bringing back Luka. They might sit him out for a couple of months.
However, the 2021 NBA Champion didn’t seem worried about the Mavs’ postseason hopes even if their season record suffers a decline. A big reason for that was Kyrie’s form.
Teague hailed Kyrie as a top 5 PG
After discussing Doncic’s injury, Teague and Co. went back to discussing Kyrie. The former Milwaukee Bucks star said, “You probably can’t tell me 5 [point guards] who are better than Kyrie.”
Teague declared the eight-time All-Star to be one of his favorite players to watch and placed him at the helm of top PGs in the history of basketball. He placed Steph Curry above Kyrie based on individual accolades, but admitted that both are pretty much at the same level on the floor from a pure basketball sense.
Teague even went as far as to name Kyrie a better player than Allen Iverson, which is not a controversial take. Even though Kyrie doesn’t have a league MVP like AI, his offensive arsenal is much more diverse than the Philadelphia 76ers legend. The Mavs star might have stolen an MVP as well if he were playing in the early 2000s like Iverson.
