Kyrie: New York is ‘special place’ for me
In case it doesn’t work out with the Celtics, Kyrie Irving’s affinity for the Knicks is now on the record.
The guard was candid Saturday about his interest in playing in New York before deciding earlier this month that he plans on resigning with the Celtics. Irving also sounded like he gave it a lot of thought.
“Every team was under consideration but obviously New York held a special place for me,” said Irving, who grew up about 15 miles away from MSG in West Orange, NJ. “Just being from Jersey and obviously envisioning myself as a free agent and ultimately taking a meeting and playing for (Knicks coach David Fizdale) and a great young core that they have here.
“Thinking about playing with (Kristaps Porzingis). That was a big thing before I made my decision just to to plan on re-signing back with Boston. But yeah, of course, New York was a strong consideration.”
Irving will become a free agent on July 1 and, assuming everything goes according to plan, he’ll get a fiveyear, $190 million deal. If he signs with the Knicks or another team, he’s only eligible for a four-year, $139 million contract.
But Irving, 26, said the reason he prefers the Celtics is that they’re in a better position to contend.
“I think if you were in my position I think it would be an easy decision,” he said. “Thinking about who we have and the future and what we’re set up for. For me it was — where I am in age and how I envision my career going and kind of the lineage of guys that have come before me in the Boston Celtics is something I wanted to be a part of.
“So obviously my dad and my mom met in Boston so I had a lot of history there as well. Obviously being from New Jersey, has history there. But Boston, there’s nothing like it.”
Of course, there are still nine months and an entire season before Irving can sign a contract. Injuries can occur. Turmoil. A lot of things change in the NBA.
TheCeltics already are paying Gordon Hayward and Al Horford max contracts. Jayle n Brown and Jayson Tatum need to get paid after their rookie contracts expire. Marcus Smart just signed a $52 million deal. Terry Rozier will become a free agent this summer.
The Knicks, meanwhile, will likely have enough cap space to sign a max free agent and would prefer to ink Kevin Durant. But Irving is a nice fallback option.
Before Saturday’s 103-101 Celtics win at MSG, Irving was introduced to a mix of cheers and boos, reactions he seemed to embrace by waving toward the crowd.
His performance was uneven, with 16 points on just 5-of-16 shooting with five assists. He did, however, connect on a crucial and-1 by splitting two Knicks defenders with about three minutes remaining.
Fizdale is a big fan. Maybe it works out that he’ll coach him some day, too.
“He’s the one guy I would pay to see,” Fizdale said. “I mean, if I was going to pay to go watch somebody play, he’s a difficult cover, man.
“His skillset is, I don’t know if you can practice that to get good at that. He’s a natural performer.”