The strongest defense of Kyrie Irving came after he likely left for good.
Irving did not speak to reporters after his exit meeting Thursday, but several teammates came to his defense as the calls blaming him for Boston’s demise steadily rose throughout their 4-1 series dismantling at the hands of the Bucks. Celtics forward Marcus Smart was asked if Irving’s leadership was to blame for the disappointing regular season and early playoff exit.
“That’s bulls–t,” Smart said, according to a video posted by the Boston Globe’s Nicole Yang. “Not one of us in this room know what Kyrie goes through. Probably only a few people in the world know what Kyrie goes through. It was hard for him, as well. He was forced into a situation where it was business over friendship.”
Irving was traded to the Celtics two offseason ago after forcing his way off the Cavaliers and his role as LeBron James’ wing man. He joined a team that reached the Eastern Conference finals and would go back again without Irving in his injury-plagued first season with the team. Irving would stay relatively healthy this season, but the team’s immense talent never came together, and Irving made curious statements that exacerbated problems or created new ones.
But Smart’s defense and the timing of it — since he will likely no longer be teammates with Irving anymore — perhaps sheds some light on those putting all the blame on the 27-year-old point guard.
“He had to come into a situation where a group of guys that had something going before he came here. ‘How will I fit in?’ He didn’t want to disrupt it,” Smart said. “That says a lot. This is Kyrie Irving we are talking about, and he’s coming in talking about disrupting us. We took him on with full arms and tried to understand it, but we never really understood because we are not in his shoes.
“That’s just a bulls–t statement to say his leadership killed us. There’s four other guys out there. There’s 12, 13 other guys on the team, coaches and everything, so to blame it on one guy is bulls–t.”
Irving is now expected to opt out of the final year of his contract, and it seems unlikely he will re-sign with the Celtics. The Knicks and Nets will be among his suitors, and at least the Knicks will be trying to pair him with Kevin Durant.
“There’s no time to be disappointed,” Irving said after the 116-91 loss to Milwaukee. “You move on. … It’s moving on to the next thing and seeing where that ends up.”