Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is among those who believe Kyrie Irving has played his last game in a Boston Celtics uniform.
“I don’t know, but I think Kyrie will leave Boston,” Gilbert said of his former player to the Plain Dealer’s Terry Pluto.
Irving has spent the last two seasons in Boston after forcing his way out of Cleveland. As he entered his walk year, he said he planned on re-signing with the Celtics “if you guys will have me back”.
Then the 2018-19 season happened.
Irving had another strong season from an individual standpoint, earning his sixth career All-Star selection by averaging 23.8 points, 6.9 assists and 5.0 rebounds. It was a tough year from a team perspective, though.
After coming within one game of the 2018 NBA Finals with Irving and Gordon Hayward sidelined, Boston managed finished 49-33 during the regular season, good for fourth in the Eastern Conference. As the team struggled to find a rhythm, Irving found himself calling out his teammates in the middle of the season.
When asked about his future in February, Irving told reporters, “Ask me July 1”.
He would later apologize for his lack of leadership, though that would do little to get the team back on track. The Celtics’ season ultimately came to an end in the second round of the playoffs, as the Milwaukee Bucks dispatched them in five games.
Boston now faces an uncertain future as it pertains to Irving, who can be a free agent this summer. While the trade worked out fairly well for Boston, Cleveland has been criticized for the deal, though 2018 first-rounder Collin Sexton remains a work in progress.
Gilbert made sure to point out that his team was in a tough spot and had limited options, per Pluto:
“It becomes a melting snowball. We had to trade him when we did. What team would want Kyrie with only one year on his contract knowing he could leave after the season? You won’t get much back (under those circumstances).
[…]
“We could have ended up with nothing. Looking back after all the moves Koby made, we killed it in that trade.”
Gilbert also acknowledged that the report of Irving—who wound up being limited to 60 games and missed the entire postseason in 2017-18—threatening to sit out the season and undergo knee surgery if he wasn’t moved was indeed accurate.
“The agent was telling us, if we don’t trade him, there is some surgery he is on the borderline of having on his knee,” Gilbert told Pluto. “It was possible he could be out for most of the year. It turned out to be true.”
Gilbert will now watch with the rest of the basketball world to see what Irving decides.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
