Kyrie Irving may have played his final game with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, as the All Star point guard is set to become an unrestricted free agent this Summer. If that's the case, it'll be an extremely disappointing end to his brief tenure in Boston.
Following last night's brutal loss in Milwaukee, NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill, who is also part of the "Duke Brotherhood," was critical of the way Kyrie Irving handled himself this season and how he failed to live up to the Celtics standard.
Says Hill:
"I'm sure he'll receive a lot of criticism this summer, and maybe rightfully so. And not just his play, and not just his, he didn’t look into it tonight even though he took 21 shots, but just his leadership, his press conferences, he’s been indifferent, he’s been disengaged.
And as Isiah said before the game, certain franchises you just can’t do that. And Boston, that’s one of them. There’s an expectation there of success, of working hard, of having integrity in terms of how you approach things - and Kyrie Irving didn’t live up to that as their marquee guy. You talk about Larry Bird, and Havlicek, and Russell, and even recent years KG and Paul Pierce, and you know he didn’t fall in line with the rest of those greats."
Throughout the season, rumors have suggested that Irving will look to team up with Kevin Durant in New York - and the responses Irving's game during his post-game press conference leads many to believe that will, in fact, be the case.
"The taste of defeat, the style of being down 1-4, I haven't felt, so for me, it's just moving on to the next thing, and just seeing where that ends up," Irving told reporters after Game 5.