Sports Illustrated insider Chris Mannix revealed part of the turmoil that haunted the Boston Celtics this season, including Kyrie Irving's poor relationship with young players — the worst of them with up-and-coming talent Jaylen Brown. Mannix joined FS1's Chris Broussard and Rob Parker on The Odd Couple podcast to shed some light on a roller-coaster season for the Celtics:
“You can write a whole book on what went wrong because the season was basically a disaster from start to finish,” said Mannix. “[Irving's] relationship with the young players on the roster was awful. Jaylen Brown he was probably the worst with, I don’t think it was great with Jayson Tatum, and it was awful with Terry Rozier because Terry was supplanted at a position he thought he did enough to win. That created a pretty nasty atmosphere. Kyrie’s leadership skills were lacking and he failed at it.”
This is coming only two years after Irving bolted from Cleveland, demanding a trade from the Cavaliers in his quest to lead his own team.
The Celtics led themselves, without Irving, through the 2018 NBA playoffs and getting only a game away from the NBA Finals. His return to the court was one not exactly welcomed by those young players who made strides to get that far in the postseason.
Jayson Tatum, Terry Rozier and Brown all lost playing time once Irving came back to play his usual share of the load, awaking a feeling of resentment toward the star point guard, who had done little to show signs of leadership throughout the season.
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