NBA Rumors: Kyrie Irving Recruited This Star While With Celtics

None of the grand plans Kyrie Irving had for his Celtics tenure ever ended up coming to fruition.

Prior to the start of the 2018-19 season, Irving publicly announced his intention to re-sign with Boston, only to leave the organization for Brooklyn after the campaign. Not long after that declaration at TD Garden, Irving reportedly put his recruiter cap on and tried to bring a fellow NBA superstar to the Celtics.

According to longtime C’s reporter Steve Bulpett, who now contributes to Heavy.com, Irving had his sights set on teaming up with Anthony Davis in Boston.

“It was looking like Anthony Davis was going to go to Boston with Kyrie there for a stretch,” a league executive told Bulpett. “That’s what Kyrie wanted. Boston would have had to work it out with New Orleans, but once Anthony made his decision of where he wanted to go, the Pelicans wouldn’t have had much choice.

“But that’s the way it was going. I think people assumed at first that (Kevin) Durant would stay with Golden State, so Kyrie was courting AD to join him in Boston. It was looking good, but then Anthony and Kyrie had a little bit of a falling out for some reason. I think Kyrie fell more in love with Kevin Durant as opposed to Anthony Davis. Maybe he realized KD was possible.”

As the old saying goes, sometimes the best deals are the ones you don’t make. The Celtics likely would have had to give up Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown in a package for Davis, who easily could have left Boston for nothing after his second contract expired. And who knows how Brown or Tatum would have felt if they were left as the lone cornerstone for an organization with a bleak outlook.

The C’s have caught some tough breaks over the past few years, but this was a bullet they were fortunate to dodge.