Kyrie Irving has had a very interesting career, going from being the savior of the Cleveland Cavaliers after LeBron James left for Miami, to becoming the King’s sidekick and then trying to be the leader of the Boston Celtics. Following his exit from the then Quicken Loans Arena, the point guard struggled to win due to injuries and other issues.
Irving has earned a reputation for promising things that he never fulfills, as happened in Cleveland, when he said he felt confident playing alongside LeBron, only to request a trade in 2017. Then, he did the same in Boston, promising fans that he’d re-sign with the Celtics months before he made a different decision and went to Brooklyn to team up with Kevin Durant.
The 2016 NBA champion talked about this situation during a recent Twitch stream, where he touched on several topics, including his exit from Cleveland. Redditor ImDKingSama summarized the main points of Kyrie’s explanation and what went through his mind during his time in Boston.
Once he got traded to Boston he was very happy, his dad went to BU, grew up a semi-Celtics fan. Wanted to spend rest of his career there.
But in 2018 the season gets derailed by the Hayward injury followed by his own knee injury later in the season.
He was actually supposed to come back by the ECF but his knee ended up getting infected.
The injury recovery process was rough for him, couldn’t walk around, had to take antibiotics with this thing that went from his bicep to his heart. Says it was incredibly frustrating and embarrassing.
Heading into 2019, he tells the Celtics management he is going to re-sign, which leads to him telling the same thing to his teammates and the fans.
He also said that he had some “plans up his sleeve” hinting at potential trades he was tampering.
However a week after he said he was coming back, his grandfather passed away. This leads to him not being himself emotionally that entire year, being angry and depressed. He said he struggled handling grieving while in the public eye, and would’ve handled things differently if he could have.
When the Celtics played the Bucks Kyrie says they were just another level with their physicality. Also points out the team was not just young but also did not have much time to gel.
He also gives personal perspective on how he dealt with racist comments from Boston fans, but does specifically say that he is not calling Boston racist.
Also pointed out that he thought the fan base was too excessive across the board with all their sports teams in how they react to opposing teams and when their own team is not playing well.
In the end, he went to Brooklyn to be with his family and be closer to home.
After all the things he went through, it’s not hard to see why he wanted to be closer to his family. His time with Boston was tumultuous, first missing the playoffs due to injury and then not meshing well with the young players. Even though he assured fans that he’d stay with the team for the long-term, life changed Kyrie’s plans and now he’s in Brooklyn, trying to win his second championship.
The relationship with Celtics fans is ruined, and even though he wants to leave that in the past, people don’t forget and let him know whenever they can.
