Kyrie Irving’s time with the Boston Celtics was dysfunctional.
So, it’s no surprise the former Boston point guard didn’t hold back when it came to voicing his feedback with coach Brad Stevens.
Ex-Celtic Terry Rozier saw the Irving-Stevens relationship unfold in Boston prior to his sign-and-trade and shared some insight on Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix’s podcast “The Crossover.”
“I feel like it was more of… it kind of wasn’t coach-player… It was kind of like coach-younger coach,” Rozier said, as transcribed by WEEI.com. “When he came over (to Boston) he won a championship, him being who he is, Kyrie had a lot of stuff that he felt that could change, that he wanted to change about the Celtics. (These are) all on-court things. He felt like he knew a lot of his basketball.”
Irving and Stevens didn’t go back and forth about “whose” way they would do things, but Irving, who had won the 2016 NBA title with LeBron James in Cleveland, felt confident he knew what worked — and what didn’t.
“You could just tell, when Kyrie came he was kind of advanced and he had his little input and he wasn’t holding back. He would say what he felt that we could change or could do,” Rozier said. “Sometimes it would work out for us, sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes they would talk it out and make it happen.
“… He had that championship mindset, so he let that carry with him everywhere he (would) go,” Rozier said.
And Boston wasn’t the last place Irving brought that mindset, as the point guard wound up signing with Brooklyn Nets on July 7. Of course, this came after infamously announcing to fans in 2018, “If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here next year,” which the current Charlotte Hornet Rozier also shed some light on.
