Boston Celtics star makes staggering revelation on relationship with Kyrie Irving - "Me and Kyrie didn't really see eye to eye when we was here"
The Boston Celtics had one of the deepest rosters during the 2018-19 season. But the stacked team ended up falling short of its championship aspirations, losing to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Jaylen Brown, in an article by Logan Murdock from The Athletic, said this about his relationship with Kyrie Irving during that disappointing season:
"Me and Kyrie didn't really see eye to eye when we was here. Really at all," Brown said.
It was also reported in the article that Irving was heavily critical of the young core of Brown, Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier whenever they would make errors on the court. As the young players of the team, they were still going through growing pains. Brown, in turn, went go back-and-forth with Irving, resulting in more turmoil and drama within the locker room.
Kyrie Irving and the 2018-2019 Boston Celtics
During the 2018 Eastern Conference finals, the young core of Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, along with the veteran leadership of Al Horford, took LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to seven games and were one win away from the NBA Finals.
Championship aspirations were at an all-time high the following season as the team got Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward back into the lineup.
With how well the team's young players played in the previous playoffs, their confidence grew immensely. As Kyrie Irving was the team's main guy, the question was who was going to get the second-most touches?
Irving, on the other hand, was trying to cement his legacy as more than just a sidekick who played alongside LeBron James. To be able to succeed in leading a young team to a championship would do well in his career.
However, the All-Star point guard was unable to translate his elite scoring prowess into leadership status, which resulted in Irving leaving to join forces with Kevin Durant with the Brooklyn Nets in 2019.
Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics struggled to find a cohesive and consistent playing style throughout the 2018-2019 season. There were games where they showed flashes of how good they were capable of being. But there were also games where they lost terribly as they showed lackluster chemistry.
Irving, looking back on the matter, said this in The Athletic article:
"Sometimes — and I could say this for myself — sometimes our individual goals are before the team goals, and he had to adjust. You think about our team. I want you to really look back at our team that we had and see how talented we were. And we had a lockup in every position. It was two, three guys in every position.
"So, it was not only competitive with me and J.B., but it was competitive amongst all of us. And that wasn’t the best recipe for team success if you’re competing with your brothers every day."
This season, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics (49-23) are second in the Eastern Conference standings, while Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks (36-36) are seventh in the Western Conference standings.