Kyrie Irving has been causing quite a ruckus within the Boston Celtics' locker room with his recent actions. Between calling out the younger players of his team to all the noise surrounding his potential exit this summer, the tension within team has been at an all-time high.
However, as pointed out by Joe Vardon of The Athletic, all this might actually be a calculated set of moves performed by Irving — something that he may have learned from Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Bryant’s message to Irving was, basically, that great teams need a player who actually causes conflict inside the locker room, on purpose. That great teams need someone who makes his teammates uncomfortable when things might otherwise be easy and quiet.
While definitely unorthodox, this type of motivational tactic might actually be (literally) the stuff of legends. Just ask Kobe and his five championships for the Lakers.
When asked about the feasibility of this unusual approach, some of Irving's teammates saw some truth to the claim:
“I mean, he loves Kobe, Kobe said that, he agreed — it kind of does make sense,” said Irving’s backup in Boston, Terry Rozier. “If (Irving and Bryant) agreed on that, that’s something that you can really look at, but I don’t know if he really wakes up every morning telling himself that he wants to cause conflict or cause problems.”
While Rozier might have still been a bit on the fence, Marcus Smart appears to have Irving all figured out:
Added Smart: “I can tell you that what he’s doing, it’s working. Causing conflict, if that’s what he’s doing, it’s working.”
If this is indeed what Irving is trying to pull off, then it appears to be working. The Celtics have won five straight and are locked with the Indiana Pacers at the third spot in the Eastern Conference.
Nonetheless, Kyrie will need to tread with extreme caution here, as this high-risk, high-reward tactic can very easily blow up in his face if not executed to perfection.
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