Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics reveals that his team wasn't having fun at the start of the season, which might be the reason for their early struggles.
Per Tom Westerholm of MassLive, Irving believes that the most important thing is to have fun. He even noted that this is a taboo topic to some, but it happens in every NBA locker room.
“I think the important thing to take (off) our shoulders early on was just how much of the fun we weren’t having. It just wasn’t fun. … I know certain guys would probably be fearful to talk about it, but it goes on in every NBA locker room.”
The Celtics notched their fourth win in a row Thursday night over the New York Knicks. This streak ties their longest for the season.
Irving himself had a team-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. He was also 3-of-6 from downtown. Big man Al Horford had a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds. It was a team effort by the Celtics, as six players were in double figures in scoring.
Second-year man Jayson Tatum earlier admitted that the ‘hype' entering the season might have contributed to his team's early struggles. To recall, even without Irving and Gordon Hayward in the lineup, the Celtics managed to crawl their way to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Perhaps this was what Kyrie Irving was talking about. The Celtics were pretty aware of what they had achieved the previous season. It created some sort of desperation and tension among them. Instead of firing them up, it created an inconsistent team.
But now, Irving seems to have identified the problem. The next step would be to apply his offered solution: to simply have fun playing the game.
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