Kyrie Irving reveals dream for Celtics big three that never materialized and ‘splintered’ the locker room
Irving tried to get Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant to come to Boston together. The rumors fractured the Celtics' locker room.
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When the Mavericks sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers in a three-team deal that also involved the Utah Jazz, there were jokes floating around on social media that Danny Ainge had finally put together his vision of pairing Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis.
Davis, a 10-time All-Star, will now team up with Irving in Dallas. Ainge, who is now CEO of basketball operations for the Jazz, helped his new team become the trading partner that played a role in finalizing the deal.
This pairing of Davis and Irving was supposed to happen in Boston with Ainge at the helm years ago, Irving said Tuesday, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
The dream, Irving said, would have been for him to stay with the Celtics, Ainge to acquire Davis via trade while somehow keeping Jayson Tatum out of the deal, and sign Kevin Durant.
“Just letting you know now, we were discussing in 2018, just for everybody at home that’s watching because I know all of these words are going to be looked at,” Irving said with a laugh. “But yeah, in 2018, it was a dream for Kyrie, AD, KD, to be on one team and still keep JT and let him grow and see how it goes.”
“But back then, those young guys weren’t ready to be in trade rumors, man,” Irving added. “Our locker room splintered after that, once they found out. It wasn’t (Tatum) or (Jaylen Brown), but our locker room splintered once they started figuring out the trade rumors and our season started going a whole different way.”
Irving said he was caught talking to Durant in a hallway, which sparked speculation that they may have been up to something. Rumors linking Davis to Boston followed not long after, he said.
The dream never came to fruition, and Irving ended up leading the Celtics for the Brooklyn Nets the following year.
“We all had that vision to play together in Boston,” Irving said. “Danny Ainge had a large responsibility in that, trying to make it happen, make sure that I stayed in Boston. But we had some young pieces in (Tatum) and (Brown) and if we traded either one of them who knows if they win a championship.”
“So, the franchise had to do what was best for them, and I had to do what was best for me. So then, it didn’t necessarily make a lot of sense because of the pieces and assets that we had.”
Seven years later, Irving and Davis will play together after one of the most shocking NBA trades in recent memory.
It won’t be in Boston, but it’s still fun nonetheless, Irving said.
“Now, in our older age, as they say, in our league, we get a chance to do something we envisioned a while ago when we were young kids. So, it’s exciting now.”
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