After the Boston Celtics defeated the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden Saturday night, star point guard Kyrie Irving said something that is going to haunt Knicks fans for a long, long time.
Irving told reporters postgame that had he not informally announced his intentions to re-sign with the Celtics next summer, he would have considered signing with the Knicks. Irving grew up in the New Jersey area, and the Knicks internally had the superstar guard as their No. 1 free agent target.
“Obviously, New York has a special place for me,” Irving said. “You know, being from Jersey, and obviously envisioning myself as a free agent and ultimately taking a meeting and playing for [coach] Fiz and a great young core that they have here. Thinking about playing with [Kristaps Porzingis] KP, that was a big thing before I made my decision to plan on re-signing back with Boston.”
Kyrie confirms that NY was strongly considered as his next NBA destination pic.twitter.com/hYAJOdgfc0
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) October 21, 2018
Kyrie Irving will make $20.1 million this season. He has a player-option for the 2019-20 season, but he is expected to decline that and sign a new max contract with the Celtics.
Irving scored 16 points on Saturday to help the Celtics defeat the Knicks by a final score of 103-101. Boston is now 2-1 on the young season.
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