Kyrie Irving admits he didn’t embrace Celtics history, Jayson Tatum did

2024 NBA Finals – Boston Celtics v Dallas Mavericks

BOSTON —Bill Russell. Larry Bird. Seventeen banners. “Havlicek stole the ball.” Bob Cousy. Cedric Maxwell. The parquet floor. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Sam Jones. Lucky the Leprechaun.

No franchise has a richer, more storied NBA history than the Boston Celtics, who are looking to add a record 18th banner Monday night when they host the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Younger players don’t always understand and appreciate that history. How differently Jayson Tatum and Kyrie Irving chose to embrace it helped lead them to different arcs in Boston.

“When you come into the NBA, you just think every organization, every franchise is the same. That couldn’t be any further from the truth,” Tatum said. “I’ve been fortunate to be a part of something that is special, that has had some of the greatest players to ever play wear this uniform. You realize early on that it’s an honor and it raises your level of commitment, I felt like, to this city and to this franchise.”

That’s not how Irving saw it when he came to Boston.

“They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics’ pride, buy into everything Celtics, and if you don’t, then you’ll be outed. I’m one of the people that’s on the outs”

Kyrie Irving opens up about his time in Boston, and drops some interesting nuggets pic.twitter.com/NzJwG3iJ4O

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) June 16, 2024

“When I look back on it, getting traded here, this wasn’t one of my options. You know, it wasn’t like number one on my list. So when the trade opportunity got approached me, instead of going back and appreciating the Celtics history, I just came in with an open mind and just kind of like, ‘Alright, I’m just gonna go with the flow into this,’ but I think that was the wrong approach. You know, just being a young. But now that I’m a little older, you know, hindsight looking back on I definitely would have taken the time to get to know people within the community, talk to some of the champions that have come before me, actually extend myself to them instead of the other way around expecting them to be…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kyrie-irving-admits-didn-t-202317363.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-16 20:23:17

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.