"I'm just not as good as the other people" -- Power ranking the postgame quotes

Framing the series through the participants' own words

Have you ever seen Hot Ones? You probably have. Superficially, it’s a silly little bit: the host interviews a celebrity while they eat a series of increasingly molten chicken wings.

But mounting pain lends itself to surprisingly candid interviews. Distracted by the inferno in their mouths, people — even those used to being on camera — lose their filters.

The pressure of the NBA Finals isn’t that different. It weighs on participants’ minds, bypassing the usual “both teams played hard” non-answers players usually default to in postgame scrums.

Through two games, we’ve had several revealing soundbites worth exploring more fully. I collected my five favorites to help explain the Finals so far.

5) “I actually appreciated [Joe Mazzulla] playing me just [nine] minutes in the All-Star game. I’m just not as good as the other people, and we won the game.”

— Boston guard Jrue Holiday, speaking to The Athletic after Game 2

That’s Holiday talking about his performance in the 2023 All-Star Game under East coach Joe Mazzulla, well before he was traded to Boston.

You can see why Holiday is a three-time winner of the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award. In a league where every player wants more shots, more money, and more glory, humility is a highly desirable trait in a teammate.

But while Holiday might not be the best player on the court, he can play like the best on any given night. He has a diverse, well-rounded skill set that lends itself to a variety of roles and positions.

In fact, his 26-point, 11-rebound, 1-block, 0-turnover Game 2 performance looks more like an elite modern big man than a guard:

Holiday was 9-for-9 in the paint. Many of those points came off smart cuts while waiting for Jayson Tatum to attack the paint, suck in the defense, and open up a lane:

Holiday’s four offensive rebounds were the most of any player in the game. He did all this while playing his usual excellent defense.

For one game, at least, Holiday was as good as anyone. And, no surprise, they still won the game.

4) “Jaylen is their best player, so just looking at what he does defensively, he picked up Luka (Dončić) full court, he got to the free-throw line, he did everything. That’s what your best player does.”

—Dallas coach Jason Kidd, after Game 1

Kidd is not known for his delicacy. This is a man who famously once instructed a player to “hit me” so he could spill his drink on the floor and give his team a bonus late-game timeout, a man who has no problem calling out his players for any actual or perceived flaws.

So it was not surprising that Kidd blatantly attempted to play mind games with the Celtics after a brutal Game 1 loss, hoping to sow locker-room dissent. (He even put on a little sh*t-eating smirk. Kidd would prefer you ignore the fact that his team has designed its entire defense around stopping Jayson Tatum, not Jaylen Brown.)

Shining so much light on Brown naturally casts some shade on Tatum. Of course, the Brown-or-Tatum discourse has surrounded the Celtics for years, a stinky fart everyone ignores but can’t help noticing (sorry). It’s not a new story, and it’s no longer a news story (except for Kidd's hilarious lack of subtlety).

Holiday’s acknowledgment prior to Game 2 that he didn’t think Kidd was wrong was something that mostly slipped under the radar. If Kidd’s transparent shenanigans were unlikely to stir the pot, what about an admission of the same from a teammate?

Later, Holiday walked back those statements and attempted to clarify that both were superstars. Apparently, that was good enough.

Tatum responded maturely both with his words (“It’s a team sport… we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have JB on our team”) and his actions, cashing out 12 assists despite another subpar shooting night. Brown played well again, too, and added seven assists of his own (albeit with six turnovers).

It’s not like Tatum has become completely deferential. He’s still attempting — and missing — plenty of shots. But unlike in the 2022 NBA Finals, Tatum has found other ways to impact the game: collapsing the defense, passing, rebounding. The team is winning despite his shooting, but because of Tatum.