This Boston Celtics season has had a lot of storylines, but at its heart, it’s always been about Kyrie Irving. How will Irving reintegrate with the team after missing out on their postseason run? Would Irving re-sign next summer? How would Irving’s stated desire to become a leader end up panning out? It’s meant an unprecedented level of scrutiny on Irving, who has been their team’s best player on the court but has gone through a series of unforced errors off of it. Apparently, it’s been enough that it's lead him to reach out to the most surprising of old teammates: LeBron James.
After scoring 27 points, not to mention a career-high 18 assists, in Wednesday’s much needed 118-108 win over the Toronto Raptors, Irving revealed that he called James to apologize for not realizing what it was like to be in his shoes. "Obviously, this was a big deal for me,” Irving said, “because I had to call [LeBron] and tell him I apologized for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips… sometimes getting the most out of the group is not the easiest thing in the world.”
If you recall, Irving was at odds with James at the end of his tenure with the Cavaliers, a divide that eventually led to him forcing a trade to the Celtics. In the deal, the Cavaliers brought back Isaiah Thomas, who was playing at an All-Star level with Boston but was coming in with what ended up to be a career-threatening hip injury. It also didn’t help that Thomas was even less happy in Cleveland than Irving. Thomas was gone by the trade deadline and, without a reliable second option, James and the Cavaliers faltered in the NBA Finals. That marked the end of James’s time with the Cavaliers as he went on to join the Los Angeles Lakers in free agency, a move that has probably set Cleveland back years.
Meanwhile, Irving got his wish for his own team and, well, it’s been a case of “careful what you wish for” so far. The Celtics made it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but Irving was recovering from knee surgery throughout the entirety of the playoffs. Since his return this season, his attempts to provide leadership have had mixed results. A closed-door meeting with his team after a particularly painful loss was heralded as a season-saving move by Irving, but the Celtics soon slid back into old habits. Recently, Irving has called out the younger players on the team, saying that the team's current malaise is partly due to the fact that they lack “championship experience.”
The decision to go public with these comments led to a backlash among fans, the media and within the Celtics locker room. Jaylen Brown, almost certainly one of the target's of Irving's criticisms, promptly responded by pointedly saying, “it starts from the top to the bottom, not the bottom to the top.” This combined with the team’s inability to put together any sort of momentum, putrid road performance and disappointing record (currently 26-18) has caused some to call into question Irving’s future with the team.
Despite Irving's public proclamation that he was going to sign a maximum contract with the Celtics in the offseason, a worsening situation could certainly cause him to reevaluate things. Heck, a pre-deadline trade is suddenly not even a complete impossibility anymore (although it’s hard to imagine that any return other than the New Orleans Pelicans’ Anthony Davis would be worth it).
Luckily for the Celtics, Irving appears to be learning a bit of humility over the course of the week. A few days ago he apologized to teammates for publicly criticizing him. This call to James was also a sign of maturity, an acknowledgment that he handled things poorly during the end of his tenure with the Cavaliers.
Now, publicly revealing the fact that he called James also doubled as a bit of a PR move on his part. Maybe that's a positive sign too, as providing well-timed media spin is another responsibility that falls on a team leader in the modern NBA Maybe Irving should make another call and thank LeBron James for teaching him that as well.
