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How Kyrie Irving Isolated Himself From His Celtics Teammates

After the 2017-2018 NBA season, everyone thought that the Boston Celtic will develop into a serious contender for years to come.

These young Celtics had been one of the biggest success stories of that season.

A young team that lost both their All-Stars, Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving, who both underwent season-ending surgeries, made the Conference Finals. Boston’s young core (Tatum, Brown, Rozier) played brilliantly and made the fans almost forget about Irving and Hayward.

Then, this past season, with the two stars healthy and playing again, everyone expected the Celtics to be the East’s top dog and the start of them being a contender for many years. But in reality, the team was struggling all year long.

The team never managed to build a chemistry and act like an actual team, leading to Kyrie Irving eventually leaving town.

This season, the Celtics look great and like a proper team. They are sitting at 12-4 and haven’t lost a home game yet.

Before the team’s game tonight against the Brooklyn Nets, in which Kyrie will not play due to an injury, The Athletic put out an interesting piece that goes into detail on how Irving had isolated himself from the rest of the team:

“The day after taking a 1-0 series lead on the Bucks, the Celtics held an optional practice in Milwaukee. At the time, they should have been flying high. After sweeping the Pacers in the first round, Marcus Morris had declared the Celtics were “not that same team” that stumbled through an uneven regular season. Then Irving collected 26 points and 11 assists to beat the Bucks 112-90 in the series opener. Boston won that game decisively enough on the road that Paul Pierce said on ESPN that he considered the series over.

While Celtics teammates worked out on the floor the next day, sources say Irving climbed into the stands and sat by himself. The practice was voluntary, but the way he disengaged himself — while his teammates put in work — struck observers.

“He was just disconnected,” said one witness.”