Apparently Now The Celtics Should Be Worried About The Lakers When It Comes To Kyrie Irving

(NBC Boston) – The Los Angeles Lakers remain a long shot in the Kyrie Irving free agency sweepstakes. But they’re very much still an option, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Here’s Windhorst speaking Monday night on “SportsCenter” about the chances of Irving leaving the Boston Celtics to reunite with ex-teammate LeBron James in Los Angeles:

“If you had asked me six months ago, I would have had said the door was closed and locked, that was not gonna happen. But over the last few months, there has no doubt been a thawing between Kyrie and LeBron and Kyrie has become to be more open to joining the Lakers and has done some research on the organization.”

Earlier Monday, former Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson said Irving and Kawhi Leonard would be his top two free-agent priorities if he was still in L.A.’s front office.

Irving has plenty of other options, namely the New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and his current team, the Celtics. The Lakers might rank behind those options for the N.J. native, but Windhorst believes they’re still in the mix.

“With Magic leaving, that was a guy he felt a connection to,” Windhorst added. “And with great opportunities in Brooklyn and in New York, plus Boston trying to keep him, I think the Lakers are lower on his list. But they’re on his list, and that gives them a fighting chance.

“Boston has got to still be worried about the Lakers in the Kyrie pursuit.”

*checks calendar…..yup sounds about right*

It was literally Friday that we as Celtics fans were told it wasn’t the Knicks, but in fact the Nets that were the real contenders for Kyrie Irving. When that came out everyone with a brain knew it was only the beginning. If there’s one thing you’re going to get a few more times before July 1, it’s these “reports” about where Kyrie is going and who has a chance blah blah blah. Here’s how I envision this latest little nugget from Windhorst probably playing out.

Windy: “Hey LeBron, do you still have beef with Kyrie Irving?”

LeBron: “Not really”

Windy: “The Lakers are back in contention to sign Kyrie Irving”

I’d love to know what this research is that Kyrie has done on the organization. Considering they didn’t have a head coach until like last week, they aren’t hiring a replacement for Magic, and nobody knows what the Pelicans are going to do with AD, what could he have learned? That the Lakers plan to try and bring in a free agent and then trade all their young pieces for Anthony Davis? Uhhhh yeah no shit. That’s not news. We’re to believe that he started doing research on the Lakers over the last few months yet other people are saying he already made his decision and wanted to go to NYK/BKN. Again nobody can get their story straight because nobody really has any fucking clue. It’s clear that Windhorst’s source is LeBron, and of course LeBron is going to say the Lakers are in the mix, that doesn’t make it fact.

The other thing that made me laugh was where he said that the Celtics need to worry about Kyrie going to LA. In my mind if he were to leave that’s the best possible outcome. Not only does he not go in your division to either NYK/BKN, but those teams probably don’t build super teams that you’ll have to deal with for the foreseeable future. Would it be weird to see him go to the Lakers just because we hate them? I guess but it wouldn’t be the first former Celtics star point guard we see rock those colors. Even if that takes this team out of the AD sweepstakes, again it’s not as if he’s coming to the conference if he too were to end up in LA. They’ll go with Plan C or whatever it is that Ainge and Mike Zarren have cooked up.

You just knew that there was no way we could hear people once again talking about NYK/BKN and there not be a “source” talking about the Lakers as a destination soon after. We had to wait a few days but we eventually got it, and I can’t wait to do this all over again in a few weeks. My guess is a Knicks reporter will tweet something which will once again start this all up, sort of like this

Then we’ll get a “source” that talks about how Kyrie is looking for apartments in BKN or something so they’ll become the favorites only to be followed by a picture of Kyrie and LeBron having lunch in LA or something. Then we’ll have Ainge leak to his sources like Woj that the Celtics “still feel great about Kyrie returning”. It’ll be like clockwork. We have 41 days to go with this bullshit, and it’s only going to ramp up as we get closer to July. You can take that to the bank.