After a promising start to their second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boston Celtics suffered an epic collapse as they lost four-straight games and were eliminated from the playoffs last night. It was a bad game for the Celtics from start to finish and at the center of it all was Kyrie Irving. Irving's abilities as a leader have been questioned all season long and after last night's game, Celtics player Marcus Smart was asked about whether Kyrie was a liability. Based on his answer, he wasn't appreciative of the question.
"Bull----," Smart said according to Sports Illustrated. "That's bull----. Not one of us on this team knows what Kyrie's been through. Probably a few amount of people in this world know what Kyrie goes through. It was hard for him as well. He was forced into a situation where it was business over the friendships, where he had to come into a situation knowing that, 'This is a group of guys that had something going before I came here. How will I fit in?' He didn't want to disrupt that. That says a lot."
Smart went on to say that there is plenty of blame to go around and that the whole team was bad, not just one player.
"That's just a bull---- statement to say his leadership killed us," Smart explained. "It's four other guys out there, 12 or 13 other guys on the team, coaches and everything, so to just blame it on one guy is bull----."
It is believed that Kyrie will want to leave the Celtics in the offseason, although his decision will have to wait until the free agency period opens.