Perhaps Kyrie Irving wasn’t lying when he said he “wanted to be the man.”
The star point guard requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2017 reportedly in order to escape the shadow of LeBron James and be the alpha on his own team, eventually being dealt to the Boston Celtics.
Irving has seemed frustrated in his role of leader during his second season with Boston, as the young Celtics have not lived up to their lofty expectations and the star point guard has been visibly disappointed at the up-and-down nature of the season. The 26-year-old verbally committed to re-sign with the Celtics before the season started, but he has walked back his commitment recently.
While some have speculated Irving’s cold feet stem from his frustration with being a leader, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst has a different theory. It’s been no secret the Celtics are interested in acquiring Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans, and Windhorst thinks it’s possible Danny Ainge’s infatuation with the star big man has upset Irving, making him believe Boston doesn’t see him as the “A1A player” he views himself as.
The ESPN insider divulged his theory on Jason McIntyre’s FOX Sports Radio show. (Once again, this is just a theory, not a report.)
“The Kyrie that I know – again, he’s a strange guy — he wants to be the A1A alpha dog on a team. And, this is pure speculation, part of the reason why I think he’s backing off of committing to Boston, I suspect it’s because he’s not thrilled that Boston is all excited about Anthony Davis,” Windhorst told McIntyre.
“This is a guy who had a meltdown when he didn’t get the last play of the game called for him a couple of weeks ago. The reason he bolted on LeBron — a team that had just played in three straight Finals and won a championship is because he wanted to be the guy in the center of the universe … One of the things he’s done this year, he’s put himself on a pedestal with the Celtics young players and said listen, ‘I’m up here. You guys are down there.’ He’s even called Lebron and said, ‘now that I’m a star with everyone orbiting around me, I know how hard it is, I feel bad for you.’
“Part of the reason why Kyrie is having a little bit of a freak out right now is because the reality the Celtics wouldn’t consider him the A1AAAA guy. Predicting how he may feel about them is very difficult. The Celtics’ dream is to get Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis together. They have a relationship and it seems possible … but maybe somebody needs to ask the question: does Kyrie Irving really want to play with Anthony Davis?”
Davis and Irving together would give the Celtics a one-two punch that would be among the best in the league, but it appears the C’s might want to find out what Irving really wants before they try and sell the farm for Davis.
