Kyrie Irving Had A Lot To Say Today At Practice, How Much Of It Was Bullshit?

You may remember Kyrie after yesterday’s loss, he said about 3 words

Well it looks like he’s gotten over whatever was bothering him because he was much more talkative today at practice. In all honesty, Kyrie’s in a tough spot when it comes to the media. He says too much and he gets killed, he says almost nothing like he did yesterday, and he still can’t win. I imagine that’s pretty damn frustrating. But as I listened to him talk today I felt like he was pretty open and telling, but other things confused me a little bit

Kyrie didn’t play basketball to be famous or a celebrity

This plays into all that shit we saw yesterday with him walking into the arena and getting an attitude because there was a camera all up in his face, but I’m not sure I buy this. One second he says that’s not why he got into basketball but then he immediately says he wanted those things when he was younger. That was a little confusing. If he didn’t want to be a celebrity as a result of him being in the NBA, why is he making movies? It’s not a big deal, but that threw me for a loop. It’s OK to say you just don’t love the negative aspects that come with being a high profile player. But don’t lie to me and say you never wanted it and then immediately say you wanted it.

The most important thing is setting an example for the young guys

This I couldn’t agree more with and hopefully he realizes this has not been his strong suit so far this season. That all goes back to being a leader. If you were to summarize the current example that Kyrie is setting, would it be a positive one? I don’t know how you could say yes at this point. What confuses me is if he understands how important that is, why are we dealing with all this drama? The example comes from both on and off the court, and I think we would all agree if any young guy was acting this way we’d all think it was pretty terrible.

His relationship with Brad

To me, this was the most important part. Already this season we’ve seen these two clash, Kyrie was very vocal about how he didn’t love his minutes early in the year and Brad’s rotations, and I thought it was pretty telling when he talked about Brad never having a player like Kyrie. That’s true, he hasn’t had a naturally gifted player like Kyrie before, and I think that’s where a lot of the issues start. The things that Brad’s previous players had to do in order to be successful simply because they couldn’t rely on their talent isn’t the case when it comes to Kyrie. At the end of the day he knows he has the talent to bail him out, so I think it’s been hard for both sides to adjust. It’s been hard for Kyrie to adapt to Brad’s scrappy underdog approach, and it’s been hard for Brad to realize that he has a stud on his team and he should adjust accordingly.

I’ve listened to Kyrie talk a lotttttt since he became a Celtic, and really outside of that not wanting to be famous comment I feel like this was the most genuine we’ve seen him. We didn’t get the longwinded Kyrie answers where by the time he’s done you forgot what the question even was. I look at this interview as a situation where he’s trying to make everyone happy. He’s being honest and open which I will never fault a player for, and while actions definitely speak louder than words, given all the sound bites and drama that Kyrie has given the media in the past you have to think this was a step in the right direction. To me, this was the most he sounded like a leader all season. I’m much more comfortable with how he approached the questions about how tough this season has been and all that this time around compared to what we’ve heard in the past. It’s no secret that Kyrie has thrown the “young guys” under the bus, so even the development of saying not to call them that but to instead call them his teammates is hopefully the end of that finger pointing bullshit.

So if I had to put a percentage on the bullshit meter from Kyrie today, I’d put it at like 8%. Given the situation of this team and seeing him last night, this was MUCH better than what I expected his media session to be. I’m just thankful we don’t have to spend the rest of the afternoon dissecting a passive aggressive remark and how that means he’s leaving. That shit is exhausting.