{"id":81590,"date":"2024-06-16T14:23:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T18:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=81590"},"modified":"2024-06-16T14:23:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T18:23:10","slug":"kyrie-irving-clears-the-air-on-celtics-tenure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/16\/kyrie-irving-clears-the-air-on-celtics-tenure\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrie Irving Clears the Air On Celtics\u2019 Tenure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the 2023-24 season is that Dallas Mavericks star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a> has become a media darling. However, after calming his combative nature, Irving\u2019s been measured in his media pressers. So much so that he responds transparently when asked tough questions about his past.<\/p>\n<h2>Kyrie Irving Clears the Air On Celtics\u2019 Tenure<\/h2>\n<p>With the Mavs keeping their championship chances alive in Game 4, they\u2019ll face the Boston Celtics in Game 5 tomorrow. Monday\u2019s matchup could be the final game of the season, Boston up 3-1 against Dallas. As a result, there may not have been a better chance to ask Irving what\u2019s different about playing for the Celtics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I look back on it, getting traded here, this wasn\u2019t one of my options,\u201d Irving laughs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike it wasn\u2019t No. 1 on my list. So when the trade opportunity got approached to me, instead of going back and appreciating the Celtics history, I just came here with an open mind. Just kind of like, \u2018alright, I\u2019m just going to go with the flow into this.\u2019 But I think that was the wrong approach\u2026 just being young.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Kyrie Irving reflects on how he didn\u2019t want to be traded to Boston and didn\u2019t have the right attitude:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a player, they expect you to buy into the Celtics pride. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re going to be outed. I\u2019m one of the people who is on the outs,\u201d he says, laughing. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/b1ehxixQhR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/b1ehxixQhR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noa Dalzell \ud83c\udfc0 (@NoaDalzellNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NoaDalzellNBA\/status\/1802386313666089322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>But now that I\u2019m a little older, (in) hindsight looking back on it, I definitely would\u2019ve taken the time to get to know people within the community. Talk to some of the champions that have come before me and actually extend myself to them instead of the other way around, expecting them to be there for me and give me for advice. Because they\u2019ve been through it. They have championship pedigree here\u2026 they\u2019re one of the most winningest franchises in all of sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo you have to show your respects here,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s what I struggled with initially was figuring out how I\u2019m going to be a great player here while winning championships while also leading a team and selflessly joining the Celtics organization or the cult that they have here.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what they expect you to do as a player. They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics pride. Buy into everything Celtics. And if you don\u2019t, then you\u2019ll be outed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m one of the people that\u2019s on the outs,\u201d Irving concludes. \u201cAnd I\u2019m perfectly fine with that. I did it to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>The Last Word on Kyrie Irving\u2019s Time With Celtics<\/h3>\n<p>Irving\u2019s maturity will again grab the headlines.<\/p>\n<p>Admitting he misstepped by being standoffish couldn\u2019t have been easy. Indeed, his time with the Celtics did plenty of damage to his reputation. When in Boston, he was considered moody and selfish. However, he was on the path to becoming a pariah largely because he didn\u2019t truly embody Celtics pride. The moment that he decided not to make a hard commitment to Boston, he had drawn the ire of the Celtics cult.<\/p>\n<p>It is interesting that Irving confirmed that he didn\u2019t want to be traded to the Celtics. That statement comes a week after it was revealed Boston wasn\u2019t on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/06\/03\/kyrie-irving-trade-that-almost-never-happened\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">his trade destination wishlist<\/a> when he asked the Cleveland Cavaliers to move him. In fact, the Celtics were purposely left off, as the Cavs had just faced them in the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, the All-Star wanted to be sent to the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, or Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, three of those franchises have a rich history. That\u2019s only to say that Irving was clearly willing to embrace a legacy larger than himself \u00a0Just not the Celtics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps the most unexpected aspect of the 2023-24 season is that Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving has become a media darling. However, after calming his combative nature, Irving\u2019s been measured in his media pressers. So much so that he responds transparently when asked tough questions about his past. Kyrie Irving Clears the Air On [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":81593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1608,30,62,3],"tags":[406,1382],"class_list":["post-81590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celtics","category-basketball","category-mavericks","category-nba","category-news","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}