Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving had a rocky two-year tenure with the Boston Celtics, but it doesn’t sound like he has any hard feelings from his time spent with the storied NBA franchise. After promising the franchise he would re-sign entering the final season of his contract, Irving instead jumped to the Brooklyn Nets in free agency and left the Celtics fanbase angry with his decision.
There’s no hard feelings, however, at least not from Irving’s side of the equation. He said this week during a live stream with Celtics star Jaylen Brown that putting on a Boston uniform was the opportunity of a lifetime.
“It was when I first got there, bro … like, it was so exciting,” Irving said. “My dad had gone to school right up the street. My mom graduated from [Boston University] as well, so it felt right, you know, just going there, being able to go with you guys.”
Irving was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to Boston after the 2016-17 season in exchange for three players and a first-round pick from Brooklyn. It was a move former Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said at the time “fit the timeline” within the franchise’s push toward a league championship.
Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving tepid on return from knee injury by 2026 playoffs: ‘Don’t hold your breath on that’
Carter Bahns
That NBA title for the Celtics didn’t come until the 2024 season after Irving was five years removed from suiting up at TD Garden.
Irving was the star of that 2017-18 Celtics team after the trade, the focal point of a roster that included Brown, then-rookie Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart, Al Horford and Gordon Hayward, among others.
“To be on the floor with that much talent after being in Cleveland … I needed that change of pace,” Irving told Brown on stream. “You guys were challenging me every day, and I needed that. I needed that for sure. So, first getting there, the excitement, being able to put on the Boston Celtics uniform, that was crazy.”
Entering his 15th season this fall, Irving is not making any promises on his availability for the Mavericks coming off a knee injury. The team is reportedly optimistic that he could potentially be back in action around a 10-month timeframe, which would have him ready for game action in January.
However, Irving said earlier this month he’s going ensure he’s 100%.
“It doesn’t mean that I won’t be back. It’s just, I don’t want to make any predictions on when I’m going to be back,” Irving said on another livestream. “I just want to be back 150,000% better. So I’m taking my time right now to really get healthy. I’m taking my time to really get my body right, other portions of my body right and really just enjoy this recovery process.”
The former first-round pick out of Duke and future Hall of Famer averages 23.7 points and 5.6 assists over his career with his lone championship coming in 2016 with the Cavaliers during that infamous seven-game series with the Golden State Warriors.
