Getty Nets guard Kyrie Irving
Earlier this week, Boston Celtics forward, Jaylen Brown told me that he’s happy to see Kyrie Irving flourish as a member of the Brooklyn Nets.
“Kyrie is in a better place in Brooklyn,” said Brown.
“Somewhere his roots are. He’ll be fine.”
While everybody has their own opinion of Irving during his time in Boston, Brown says that the point guard shouldered a lot of blame.
“Everybody is going to have their own opinion,” said Brown.
Caught up with Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown: t.co/nbcPnzKB6J
We discussed Celtics fans, their loss to 76ers on Thursday, what life has been like since signing his extension, why @JCrossover is still a free agent AND why he likes Kyrie Irving as a Brooklyn Nets PG!
“I don’t think Kyrie cares too much, maybe he does, and maybe he [Kyrie] shouldn’t care as much as he does. He’s Kyrie Irving at the end of the day … nobody is perfect. Kyrie got a lot of the blame and was undeserving. It wasn’t his fault that certain guys couldn’t take a step back. It wasn’t his fault. That was the front office and the coach’s fault. He gets a lot of that blame because he was the star. But a lot of that should be on the organization and coaching staff. It’s in the past.”
According to a report from the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, Brown has since stated that his statements from our interview were taken out of context and mischaracterized.
“I think it was a misquote, for sure,” said Brown.
“But to be honest I’m tired of talking about it and tired of being asked about it,” he said. “It definitely, I would say, was a misquote. It didn’t come off the way I said it, the way it was written with a narrative where [the writer] already wrote the story the way he wanted to write the story but it definitely wasn’t intended in that manner. But I’m tired of being asked about it to be honest.”
Fair enough.
Million Dollar Question: What was it like in Boston for Kyrie Irving?
On a recent episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast, I spoke with Heavy.com NBA writer, Sean Deveney. We discussed Kyrie Irving‘s time in Boston and Kemba Walker’s emergence in Boston.
Check out a snippet from our conversation below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: When you look at Kemba Walker he comes out of Charlotte find greener pastures closer to his home in the Bronx but in Boston of course. What do you make of his season this year. Do you think it makes him a household name or was he that already?
Jaylen Brown says Celtics PG Kemba Walker is humble and got to know him during Team USA play: t.co/nbcPnzKB6J
“You learn a lot about people and how they feel about you and how they carry themselves. Everything Kemba does is first class.”
Sean Deveney: I think he’s already a household name. I think it’s a higher-profile team obviously Charlotte has just been such a mess during his entire tenure he know he was really the only positive that they had going I think that but he also has some pressure he’s going to be tested very early and you know some of the leadership questions that popped up about Kyrie become of the strange answers he gave and press conferences and things like that and the bigger issue is going to be ball distribution you know in Charlotte, Kemba could just score and score and score he had to accompany else you know it was him or Cody Zeller you know how he’s going to have to be the one that does the scoring Boston he’s going to have to be more of a distributor you have to get Gordon Hayward involved you have to get Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and I know you think you got so many options there and of course you know can be such a great score at himself also be a lot of pressure on him is probably a better built to handle that and to deal with that and then what were able to see in Charlotte because he was sort of a one-man show there.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: You talked about Kyrie Irving in Boston and he moved over to the Brooklyn Nets grew up a New Jersey Nets fan told me it was a pleasure to watch Jason Kidd play the game of basketball during his time in New Jersey. From your perspective being in the Boston area and seeing Kyrie in Brooklyn and also seeing him win a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016. Here’s the million dollar question which Kyrie has to play the one from Cleveland, or Boston. Which one comes to Brooklyn to make them solidified. Which Kyrie needs to be in Brooklyn?
Nets’ Kyrie Irving having an attitude problem was reported today on ESPN’s First Take.
I asked someone in the know tonight. Their response: “Who cares that Kyrie has an attitude? Sounds like an agenda.”
Irving is averaging 28, 5 & 7 & is out with a shoulder injury.
Sean Deveney: Great question because it’s going to be you know you going to have one Kyrie this year and then a different Kyrie next year. You know playing with Kevin Durant is going to be much different than what he’s got this year with Levert and Dinwiddie and guys like that has opposed to you know definitely being number two option I think Kyrie is best as a number two option and I think that his time in Boston would have showed that I don’t know if you got that message I don’t know if that’s what he picked up from Boston and obviously wanted to play with Kevin Durant so something tells you that he knows he’s going to be the second fiddle when he’s playing with Kevin Durant maybe that’s something he decided that he was more comfortable but you know they say it is definitely something that was pretty clear. I think in Boston over the course of his tenure that he needs work on leadership. I don’t think he’s a bad guy or anything like that. I think he’s another guy who was a scapegoat. And more than that, he shouldn’t have been. But you know, I think that he’s just got a lot to learn about taking control of the team, about managing the egos in a locker room. You know if you’re going to be that leader how you do i. How do you manage young guys who want to get more touches and maybe think they’re better than they are? How do you manage veteran guys? Do you feel a certain sense of entitlement? That’s all stuff that he struggled with. But going to Brooklyn this year he’s going to have to be sort of the player that we saw that was so ball dominant especially down the stretch of games in Boston and he’s going to have to do that in Brooklyn this year. You won’t have to do it next year. Not if Kevin Durant is anything close to 100%.
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Celtics: NBA Analyst Reveals Why Kyrie Irving Was No Leader in Boston