Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens says star point guard Kyrie Irving is “dying to win” and Irving's leadership comments are coming from a good place.
After the Celtics lost to the Orlando Magic last weekend, Kyrie Irving said the young guys on the team don't know what it takes to win a championship. Then, after Boston defeated the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, Irving revealed he shouldn't have said those comments to the media and it should have been kept in-house.
Kyrie Irving also revealed to reporters that he called and apologized to LeBron James for how he acted as a young player when James came back to Cleveland in 2014. Irving, who is the leader of the Celtics, is now seeing what James had to go through with the Cavs.
The challenge of leading a young group of players on a title run isn't as easy as it looks, and Kyrie Irving is realizing that this year. Brad Stevens says Uncle Drew has good intentions and just wants to win at all costs:
Brad Stevens on Kyrie’s leadership comments: “If you have good intentions, which without question he does … he wants to win, he’s dying to win, he wants to be as good as he can be … then those are things that are great challenges. I think that’s all part of the path."
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) January 18, 2019
More Brad on Kyrie: “Leadership starts with what you do on the court — he was pretty damn good on Wednesday night — and then it’s how you serve your teammates and then everything else is what it is. Everything else follows suits from those two things."
— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) January 18, 2019
Kyrie Irving led the Celtics to a huge home win against the Raptors on Wednesday. The five-time All-Star scored 27 points and dished out a career-high 18 assists. Irving is only 26-years-old, but he's the best player on the team and the players are all looking at him to lead them every night.
It's not always going to be pretty, but it looks like Kyrie Irving is starting to understand what it takes to be a leader of a basketball team. It's not just about scoring the most points, but it also means making your teammates better and encouraging them, both on and off the floor.
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