TALKING POINT
Irving has plenty to say about upcoming movie, his future with Celtics ... and LeBron
Kyrie Irving hadn’t played in a game since March 11 as he sat in the Atlantic Room on the third floor of the Boston Harbor Hotel yesterday. But it’s fair to put him down for a couple of deflections, and certainly his comments scored a few points with Celtics followers.
Irving was here es- sentially to promote his movie, “Uncle Drew,” — “I’m excited for everyone to see it, you know, June 29” — but the more interesting topics were his future, both immediate and long term. And LeBron. Media reports that the Celtics are one of the teams his former teammate, Mr. James, will consider sparked the obvious question that, after getting himself out of Cleveland last summer, would Irving be open to that.
“In this business, I’ve experienced it all and I’ve seen a lot,” he tactfully replied, “so we’ll see what management decides.”
Irving made it clear, however, that management will not decide in a vacuum. He hasn’t spoken with the club about the LeBron rumors, and it’s unlikely the club wants to even broach the subject with him for fear of injuring the relationship with a star who can opt out after next season.
Irving, who still hasn’t started running as he rehabs from knee surgery, seems comfortable with the situation here, though.
“I’m truly grateful to be able to speak with management as well as our coaching staff,” he said. “And we pretty much have open dialogue with the direction we’re going in, and we all feel confident that we all have something to offer here. And the fact that we’re even having those conversations I’m a part of, I’m thankful for. So obviously it’s a business at the end of the day. Ownership and management, they’re going to feel what’s best for our future, and I’m fully supportive of it. So we’ll see what happens.”
As for the effect of those conversations with president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, Irving said, “It puts things at ease. Obviously the speculation from the outside, it’s inevitable. So you don’t really try to control that narrative. You try to focus on what’s important, what we need going into next year, being aware of who we have now and what we’re capable of and things that we need to kind of fix or get done, and just go from there.”
It’s also important for the Celtics to know where Irving is going, and they hope it’s nowhere. The AllStar guard is on the books for $20,099,189 next season and has an option for $21,329,752 in 2019-20. And while it might make the club sleep easier to have him signed to an extension, he’s no doubt wise to, well, keep his options open. And his injury history won’t affect that concept.
“No,” he said. “Contractually or financially, it just wouldn’t make any sense.”
On whether playing on what is essentially a oneyear contract could have an adverse impact on the Celtic process, Irving said, “The focus is solely on winning a championship next year. I don’t think it’ll necessarily have an effect. I’m doing my best to kind of deflect all that and focus on what’s in front of us.”
All about winning
Irving knows, however, that his contract will be there, too.
“My hope is that maybe we could limit it to maybe one question a day about what I’m doing next year. That’s my hope,” he said. “But obviously I can’t really control that. But I think you guys can feel my attitude is really just redemption next year, really integrating myself with our team again and really focus on winning a championship. That’s the only thing I’m really worried about. Until I get to that point, then I can’t really answer any questions.
“I’m pretty sure management and I will have a talk, but that talk won’t happen now.”
Irving seems to very much like his role, his teammates and playing in Boston.
On what’s important to him personally and professionally, he said, “I would just say the consistency, the authenticity and honesty, from everything that we’re doing as a team and an organization, and doing something bigger than myself. That’s what we all compete for. I really just can’t wait to see how we all kind of feel going into the summertime and when we get together. Obviously I’ll definitely put together a few camps for us as the summer continues but they deserve the vacation time, man. I’ve got to still get to work in terms of what I got to do to prepare, but, yeah, just leave those guys alone for a little bit then we’ll start getting back into it.”
Irving acknowledged he has that authenticity with the Celtics.
“For sure,” he said. “For sure, and young guys that literally have that drive, they have that desire to be great. I couldn’t be more proud of what they experienced. I mean, they went to Game 7 of the frickin’ Eastern Conference finals.”
Missed the run
Irving noted it indeed “sucked” to not be a part of that playoff run.
“You work extremely hard to be able to play really well on that big of a stage,” he said. “The identity of our team was forming at that time at the AllStar break, and to kind of have something like that unexpected, it was hurtful, because a lot of what I wanted to accomplish with our guys and individually as one of the leaders of the team kind of had to take a rest, and I had to really be an outsider looking in from that standpoint. It obviously wasn’t going to feel the same, but I was just so proud of our guys and what they did . . . . For me, I’m just glad everyone got to learn how special they were on a bigger stage. I’d been talking about how great they were. Some of their numbers particularly probably didn’t look as appealing to the outside looker, but they were always locked in. And then when they were afforded the opportunity to take the reins of the team, you saw them take full advantage of it. You saw guys that literally are going to be stars in this league for years to come.
“Obviously Terry (Rozier) is a starter in this league, and now that turns into an unbelievable dynamic. JT (Jayson Tatum) and JB (Jaylen Brown) and you watch Marcus (Smart) come back and the first game he’s back from missing a few months with his thumb and he’s diving on the floor. That’s the type of attitude and effort you’d love to be a part of. And of course our anchor Al (Horford) and now getting my man Gordon (Hayward) back. So I’m excited man. I’m excited. What makes it even more exciting and the challenge is now we have championship pedigree. They have experience, our young guys that sometimes other young guys in the league aren’t necessarily afforded. They gained a lot of experience, and now it can only help us going forward.”
Irving isn’t quite ready to take part in any practices. “I think around this time is probably 15 weeks until the third week in September, not that I’m thinking about it or anything,” he said.
Kyrie Irving is pondering that, a movie release, his future and LeBron’s next decision. Docked behind him as he sat before the media were the “Boston Elite” and “Odyssey,” which he, respectively, is, and is on.