Kyrie Irving vs. Boston Celtics – a redemption story?

Yahoo Sports NBA Senior Reporter Jake Fischer and Senior NBA Editor Dan Devine discuss Kyrie Irving’s redemption arc from leaving the Celtics in 2019 to their matchup in the 2024 NBA Finals. Listen the full conversation on “No Cap Room” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – and subscribe at , or wherever you listen.

Video transcription

Kyrie and Boston and his tenure there ended more, I think on his side first, as opposed to the team’s sourness.

And of course, you know, he takes the mic at this event for season ticket holders before the 1819 season and says he has every intention of signing there and dreams of getting his number 11 and the Raptors one day and his dad played at BU. and blah, blah, blah.

And then he’s already filmed talking to Kevin Durant during the All-Star break.

They’ll say they and their brothers fought together and there’s all the love there, but there’s an absolutely tangible tension between the young talents of Tatum Brown and the veterans of Kyrie and Gordon Hayward.

So Kyrie has always been maximized as being as elite as possible.

Number two with Lebron in Cleveland.

This was what he was supposed to be in Brooklyn and what he was doing in Brooklyn before he got hurt.

That’s what he’s doing now.

This wasn’t really the case in Boston.

If you, if you plan this whole thing based on someone’s career arc, the whole point of him going to Boston was for him to see if he could be that guy.

Like him, he bristled at the kind of restrictions and the idea that no matter what you do in Cleveland, it’s Lebron’s success and you’re somehow just a wingman for that, well on.

And in your early 20s, there’s still a lot to learn before you can start teaching life lessons at that time.

And the basketball element is that he’s been able to stay on the court more often in recent months than he has in many years.

He has done everything he can to be that complementary player rather than needing to show that he is the leader and the one carrying the most weight, he is perfect next to Luka Danic and all his teammates , which is also often true. in Boston and Brooklyn swears by what he gives them and how he can raise them, uh you know, and put them in the right position to succeed and grow.

You know, there were weak points.

The Boston period was certainly a low point.

This is an opportunity to figure out if you’re saying it’s good, if some are bad or, you know, clearing out some old, you know, exercising old demons or whatever.

So for him to be back at this point in the role that he is now, you know, a character, you know, grata in Dallas and, you know, having elevated this team, like it’s an ensemble interesting circumstances and I don’t think the people of Boston are going to like it very much.