Kyrie Irving reportedly left the Cleveland Cavaliers to become the clear-cut leader of a team, but he doesn’t want the label typically associated with this kind of player.
Irving undoubtedly is the best player on the Boston Celtics, but every player up and down the team’s roster has contributed to the green’s 15-game win streak. As a result, Irving doesn’t want you to call him “the face” of the Celtics’ franchise.
“I wouldn’t call it being the face. Boston Celtics is the Boston Celtics,” Irving told the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy. “I’m one of the leaders here. I live presently, so every day is another day to experience things as a group. I just try to bring that wisdom and knowledge to the table.
“Different individuals bring different things to the table, but you don’t know what the group is going to look like as a whole,” said Irving. “We’re figuring that out. Whether we’re up in games or down in games, we try to maintain that defensive presence first. We try to play at a pace we still need to get better with. I know Brad (Stevens) has been hammering on this for the last few weeks, but as we keep getting better that will start taking shape.”
Irving has been playing at a superstar level thus far in his first season in Boston. Through 16 games played, he’s averaging 20.9 points, 5.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game. The star point guard has been an integral part of the team’s win streak, as he typically plays his best basketball in crunch time.
So while he’d rather not be called “the face of the franchise,” there’s a chance we could be calling him “MVP” this spring if he and his team continue to play at such a high level.
