Irving: Trade request was about his potential, not James

BOSTON » Kyrie Irving didn’t try to hide his giddiness Friday when he was introduced as the newest addition of a Boston Celtics franchise he grew up watching.

“It’s about to be crazy, G,” Irving said in the ear of fellow new Celtics teammate Gordon Hayward as they sat on the dais two days after Boston’s blockbuster trade with the Cavaliers was completed.

Boston sent Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and two draft picks to Cleveland for Irving. Hayward signed as a free agent in July.

Hayward and Irving smiled and bantered like old friends as they posed for pictures holding their new Celtics jerseys.

But not lost on Irving is that he’s joining one of the league’s most-storied teams because of his trade request from the team that drafted him and made him an NBA champion.

Irving acknowledged he wanted to leave the Cavaliers and his partnership the past three seasons with LeBron James. But he said the decision was about maximizing his own potential and not because of any specific issue with the Cavs or any individual.

Irving said he hasn’t spoken to James since the trade, but is grateful for the time he spent alongside a player he called one of the game’s greats.

Being in Boston, Irving said, allows him to “be with a group of individuals that I can grow with.”

“That is not a knock on anything that has transpired in my six years because it was an unbelievable experience,” he said.

Irving described going through an adjustment period in Cleveland and taking him awhile to reconcile his experiences on the court with how he was evolving off of it.

“Of learning the hard way,” Irving said. “But we’re all human beings and I think we’ve all been through a few hard times to where it changes the landscape of what you think and what you feel. It was my time to do what was best for me in terms of my intentions. And that’s going after something bigger than myself.”