Kyrie Irving just can't stay out of his own way. The Boston Celtics superstar likely created more friction within the locker room and certainly made more headlines on Wednesday night, refusing to answer whether or not he has confidence in his team after another setback.
“What kind of question is that?” is a pretty strange response considering how simple that question is on its face.
Everybody knows the Celtics are struggling. A basic acknowledgment of that fact while stressing optimism, an exploration of issues currently plaguing the team, or any number of hollow verbal platitudes would have been a perfectly acceptable answer here. Instead, Irving opted to further his rift with the media while simultaneously adding fuel to the fire of Boston's on- and off-court problems.
Yikes.
This is hardly the first time this season Irving's comments to reporters have been noteworthy. He and Marcus Morris have publicly called out the team's younger players on multiple occasions, and Irving sparked a new controversy in early February by publicly going back on his preseason word of intending to re-sign with Boston this summer, remarks that immediately followed the New York Knicks creating two max-salary slots by trading away Kristaps Porzingis.
Boston, considered by most as the team with the best chance to dethrone the Golden State Warriors, has underachieved this season while trying to re-integrate Irving and Gordon Hayward after the team nearly made the NBA Finals last season without them. The Celtics, losers of four straight after Wednesday's loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, are now two-and-a-half games behind the Philadelphia 76ers for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
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