Celtics’ Irving needs knee surgery, out for playoffs
BOSTON » The Boston Celtics have spent most of the season adjusting on the fly. Now they will have to go through the playoffs without Kyrie Irving.
The star point guard will need surgery on his left knee and is done for season. On Thursday, the team put his recovery time at four to five months.
Irving hasn’t played since March 11 and says he won’t dwell on what might have been.
“The hardest thing to do sometimes is accept the uncontrollable things life throws at you,” he wrote in an Instagram post. “It’s simply a test of your perseverance and will, to be present, even in the wake of what’s going on.”
In the upcoming surgery, two screws will be removed. They were implanted after Irving’s patellar fracture during the 2015 NBA Finals. Irving recently developed an infection at the site of the screws, and now they must be taken out.
Following his original procedure last month, the team had said the knee was structurally sound and the kneecap healed, but the wire had been putting pressure on the knee.
This is Irving’s first season in Boston after he demanded to be traded from Cleveland. And the player he was dealt for, Isaiah Thomas, is out for the season following hip surgery.
Irving believes his best basketball is ahead of him.
“This season was only a snapshot of what’s to come from me,” he said in his post. “Trust Me. The journey back to the top of Mt. Everest continues.”
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue awoke from an afternoon nap to texts about Irving. He was sorry to learn about the guard’s ordeal. After all, Irving made the biggest shot in Cleveland history, a go-ahead 3-pointer in the closing minutes of Game 7 in the 2016 Finals.
“He was a big part of what we did here, a big part of winning the championship and even though he’s on another team you still don’t want to see anyone go through that,” Lue said. “I know how competitive he is and I know how much he wants to win and to go through this and not be able to play in the postseason is tough for him, so prayers go out to him and his family. I wish him the best.”
This latest news isn’t surprising considering the tight recovery window Irving faced. But it is a blow to a Celtics team that had been playing well despite a run of recent injuries to key players. Boston will likely enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed behind Toronto.