For as good as Kyrie Irving has been for the Boston Celtics this season, there have been a number of media-related incidents that have seemed to follow him throughout the year. Whether he was subliminally criticizing his younger teammates or calling out members of the press, Irving fell into a fairly repetitive cycle of little disturbances and contradictions off the court.
In a story by ESPN's Jackie MacMullan chronicling Boston's turbulent season, Irving spoke about feeling too entrenched with the opinions of others, rather than focusing on his own game and his role within the team.
“I felt by being so invested in basketball, it did me a disservice because it made me pay attention to the wrong things,” Irving said. “Like people's opinions, and things going with other people on that don't have anything to do with me.
“Everyone falls prey to it. The rankings, the top players, the trade rumors, all the fake basketball analysts, and coaches that know everything. I'm not going to let anyone else dictate my happiness.”
Irving's obsession with his craft was starting to seep into areas of his leadership and his character, which fellow Celtics guard Terry Rozier noticed.
“I love Kyrie,” Rozier says. “But there were times this year when I wanted to say to him, ‘Listen, you don't have reason to stress. You're Kyrie Irving. I'm the one that has reasons to stress.'”
The Celtics need a more focused Kyrie Irving in Game 3 in their Eastern Conference semifinal against the Milwaukee Bucks this Friday.
The six-time All-Star was tremendous in the Celtics' Game 1 win, scoring 26 points and adding 11 assists and seven rebounds. But Irving scored just nine points on 4-of-18 shooting in Game 2, where Beantown team was blown out by 21 points.
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