Why Kyrie Irving & Blake Griffin were John Wall & Draymond Green's BIGGEST NBA rivals | Baron Davis

I think we all have a moment in our careers, like, where there's a matchup that you take personally. You just mentioned mine. Like, for years in my career, I'd say maybe my first 7 years, like, until I really felt like, all right, I've done enough in this personal matchup and in my resume to where, like, all right, I feel like I'm good with that now. Like, I've done that. And we all had that matchup of guys in our career. For me, it was Blake Griffin. Like when I came in, everybody like, yo, this the next young dude up, right? Like Blake was in it, all NBA's and he was in the West. And so for me, I'm like, all right, if I'm trying to become an all-star, that's the guy I need to go at and I need to take down. Who was that guy for both of y'all?

I would say for me, mine was gonna be D-Rose. You know what I mean? Then he got hurt. Other than that, it would be Russ 'cause Russ was on the West. But for me, I'll say Kyrie. I mean, he was on the East.

Okay.

You know what I mean? Every time he played Cleveland, I know that game was on TNT. I know it was on ESPN. I'm like, these shoes gotta be laced super tight. 'Cause you know what Ky bring it like, you know what I mean? You've been against Ky in the finals and he just, for me, I feel like he's the most skilled basketball player. There's nothing he cannot do on the basketball court. Catch and shoot off the dribble, post-ups, left-hand floater. So for me, I knew I had to lace these boots up. Like, forget what happened the night before, forget going to dinner late. I'm, no, I'm in this bed getting some rest and I'm going at it. So I feel like Kyrie would be my guy. Like, that's who I would say I would always look forward to that matchup.

Yeah, I'd say for me, it was always like Iverson or Kobe. Kobe, 'cause that was the only time I got a chance for people to see me on TV at home when they, it was different back then, bro, with no League Pass. They come back, they come to Charlotte, Kobe come to Charlotte, I had to put on a show or, you know, Allen Iverson. 'Cause growing up, everybody wanted to be like AI, had that crossover like AI. And I knew if I need to put myself in a certain category, but in our era, it was like night after night. You had like, you had nightmares. Sam Cassell, you got nightmares, you better get some sleep. Nick Van Exel, you gonna have nightmares. You better get some sleep. Tim Hardaway, like all these dudes was like, you know, where I was when you dunked on me, John. Right. And so it was like one by one trying to take them out. And I think as I got older, you look at like Chauncey Billups, Steve Nash, and Tony Parker, which a lot of people don't give a lot of credit to. Those were the dudes that, you know, I wanted to take out or had a certain chip on my shoulder when I saw them.

Yeah, I had to stretch my rookie year. I was like, nah, the league set me up. I had D-Rose, Rondo, and I go out West, I got Darren Williams.

Yep, Utah.

Russ and Steve Nash. I said, this some bullshit. Steve Nash won Danny like 10 for 10 for me, against me. And like, you know, there's nothing you can do. He run around the basket, he don't stop his dribble. I'm like, bro, this dude is cold. Like, so I had like, I was just like, I had that, you know what I mean? I can't forget CP, you know what I mean? I had CP at the time. You still had Tony Parker. I mean, people forget about Goran Dragic. He was hooping at that time. Like it was, I was like, yeah, the league is some guards in this shit.

That's where every night at the point guard position was head.

Oh yeah, for sure. And then, and then also I couldn't go guard no, 3-man or a small 4-man that might can't shoot in the corner, you know what I mean? Like I have to guard the point guard every night.

Yeah, check your man.

It was no ducking, no matchup. And I'm like, bro, I gotta do this on the offense and do this on the other end. So it was great. It was a time, like I came in a great time where I had to play against a lot of great guards and it kind of like molded me to put my competitiveness level to another level.

Yeah, I was gonna say that as a guard, you come in and you shaped by like your rookie year, you played against Rondo. He played way different than Steve Nash, who played different than Deron Williams, who played different than Chris Paul, who played different than Derrick Rose. And if you get caught up in trying to figure them out, right, then you'll never figure out who you are.

And then make them—

You gotta make them scared of you.

That's what happened my rookie year.

Oh no, that's how, yeah, that's how I looked at it. I had to make people like, okay, like, and I try to make it to where it's not a matchup. You know what I mean? Like I'm trying to go every possession back at them. 'Cause if you like D-Rose at that time, you try to, oh, he score, I gotta go score. You know what I mean? And then we can't forget like when Steph started to figure out doing him, I'm like, oh, this is BS. Like I gotta run around 90 screens. Like, you know what I mean? 'Cause he don't stop moving. So I feel like that's the, like, so when people say guarding Steph, I like, "It's a whole nother level because y'all set so many screens." Like, he might have a shot, throw it, and they holding, he going off two more screens. I'm like, "Fuck, I ain't guarding nobody like this." So I'm preparing myself for this one game of how he's going, you know what I mean? Like you said, it's always different ways you gotta guard certain people and it just make it difficult.

Yeah, one of my favorite memories of your career was your game-winning shot against the Celtics in 2017. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, it was ironic. What do you remember about the shot? And what was that play? Was the play designed for you? No, I was in the corner.

Dray know the play 'cause Dray, I know Dray watch film. It's the same play we run all the time. I decoy to the corner, the 4-man dive, Brad gets the pin down from Gortai, he pulled the catch ball at the top of the key. Marcus Smart was on top of the play. So I just legally run out the corner and like, just gimme the ball. Then they got a 5-second violation and stepped out of bounds. And I'm going against a great defender, which I don't understand how he never was All-NBA First Team. If I'm wrong, please correct me, but I don't think Avery Bradley ever made All-NBA First Team, which he should have. I might be wrong.

I'll check that.

But he was a hell of a defender. I played against him since my 11th grade year in high school. He played with Doug Gatty on the Seattle AAU team. So I take one dribble and I'm like, bro, I can't get to the basket. I know they're not calling no foul. So I'm like, my only shot is to shoot the 3. Like we either win or go home. And you know what I mean? The bitch went in and it was up after that.

One time, 2016, one time. One time.

That year, oh, fuck it, I'm wrong. He made it that one year, I was about to say. But I knew like trying to get by him with a certain time on the clock, I was like, it ain't gonna work. So I just pulled up and the rest is history.

Iconic. Iconic.

But then IT almost hit a damn bank shot over Gortat. My heart was like, please go.

I need my game winner. This my—

Man, I need this.

This my one.

That maybe, that helped me get my all NBA right here.

13. Okay.

And that, in that same vein with the Celtics, that series, they came in in all black saying game 6 was a funeral. I remember you mentioned in the postgame. Was that a discussion for y'all going into that game? Like, yo, like talking about that? Because at that time, like the fashion wasn't as in your face like it is now.

Nah, like for me, it's like, you know how you sit back in the locker room, they got the little TV on, they show the teams walking in. I'm like, damn, these niggas were all black.

Yeah.

It's a funeral. Nah, hell nah. Yeah, that used to be the thing. He just can't wear no, I mean, he can't wear no, like all black and somebody said funeral. So I kind of took it personal. So you know how you warming up for the game. I told the guys like, yo, we can't lose. Like they treating it like we done with, like they already put us in the casket, we over with. I'm like, we just gotta, we gotta figure a way out. So I mean, luckily we came back and got the win and then, you know, we lost in game 7. But I feel like ironic, that's probably one of the best series in a long time. Was going toe to toe. We really had real beef throughout the regular season. Like we had real smoke throughout the regular season. So to get to them was very like, we needed that. Like I wanted that smoke.

Them the fun times, man. When you got a little chippiness back and forth with a team and then you get matched up with that team in the playoffs. Like we had, we've had those times with like the Memphis Grizzlies. We've had those times with Houston where it's like this chippiness amongst you. Every game you got that same chippiness. And then you meet in the playoffs and it's like, all right, here we go.

Like I got you. And you know, every game is different, bro. Every game gonna be different. You like, even you go down 2-0, you up 2-0, you like, man, shit, it ain't over.

It don't matter. It don't matter.

And like, that's how I felt when we played Atlanta. We got to play Atlanta earlier that series. And I was mad because 2015, we had Paul Pierce, I fractured my hand and I finished the whole game one. I didn't know I had 5 fractures in my hand. So I go to the back, take a shower, my hand like a little white muffin hand. I'm like, yo, I can't wash my back. I'm like, shit, I'm out. I got, I missed like 3 games. So I, I mean, numb my hand up and finally came back and play. And I never forget, I blocked Schroeder shot game 5 and Horford get the rebound and score a layup. Man, they go up 3-2. I never forget Dennis Schroeder and Kent Bazemore like did a, like looking at me and posted a picture. I'm like, oh, I gotta get these motherfuckers. I gotta get them. I gotta get them. So when we went back and we got to play him that year, I had like 24 in the fourth. Like I ended up with 42. I was like, "I told y'all I was coming back. I told y'all I was coming back." So, you know, like you said, you have those beef and those personal battles, that shit means something.

Yeah, that all black to the funeral, that's kind of like a whole—

I couldn't help it.

A whole little mantra, you know?