Kyrie Irving has been having a grand old time with the media of late.
The Boston Celtics star point guard has taken the brunt of the blow back from the Celtics’ most recent skid in which they have lost seven of 10 games. During that time, Irving has had his leadership questioned and has been called “disengaged,” while the star has been pretty disinterested at times with the media, and has opened up in other moments.
Irving has accused the media of breaking up locker rooms, and there is evidence that would lead you to think that is how Irving feels about the situation in Boston right now.
But his former teammate Kevin Love doesn’t entirely agree, noting to The Ringer’s Jason Lloyd in a Q&A how LeBron James was able to keep things together in Cleveland despite the media storm that surrounded the team.
A: “I’ll say this: This is something that I learned from Bron. It was a quick instance in the locker room. Something had come out and I hadn’t said it and hadn’t done anything or my words got taken out of context. I confronted him and said, “Just so you know …” He said, “They aren’t dividing us. I know. I know.” He’s 16 years in, this was like two to three years ago, that’s when I realized that so long as there is that trust and transparency, it shouldn’t divide a locker room. Because you can’t have so much noise. There’s only so many things you can think about in order to play your game. I think having a young locker room, even guys that are five years or less, having gone through it and being the Boston Celtics, being a team like that and Kyrie trying to be a main leader, that’s a tough thing to juggle. But that’s always been part of professional sports. It’s part of it. It’s just the way it is.”
There is no denying Irving has had a difficult time adjusting to being the leader on a young team, famously turning to James for advice earlier this season. There also is no denying that every team goes through its fair share of media scrutiny. Some handle much better than others. Irving currently sits in the latter category.
You can read the full Q&A with Love here >>
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