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[SleepingHero]

What happened with the Kyrie/Boston thing? I know he got hurt one of the years

I get the Cleveland thing. He made the most important shot in their franchise history en route to their 1st ship ever. He doesn’t owe them anything and wanted to do his own thing away from Lebrons shadow…….the Brooklyn thing is well known and easy to understand. 

He’s loved by every player in the league. The Boston guys(Tatum/Brown) look up to him to this day as like a big brother hero. That probably bothers Simmons

He was often injured first of all, which bothered a lot of Boston fans. 67 games in 17-18, 60 games in 18-19, but the fact he entirely missed the playoffs his first year is what started the fire for the Bostonian hate crowd.

That year Tatum and Brown led Boston to an improbable ECF run without Hayward and Irving. That empowered both of them next season to try and take the next step. Irving felt that those two were trying to usurp the chain of command of the team. As in, yes while they made a deep run, he was still the top dog having won a chip 2 years prior and hitting one of the most iconic shots in NBA history. 

That entire 18-19 season was a mess chemistry wise. Tatum and Brown complained about their roles because they basically proved they can be THE guys. Irving was offended because Boston made this whole song and dance of how he was finally THE guy after being behind the shadow of Lebron his entire career, only for it to be pulled from him in less than 2 seasons because he got hurt. And thats before I even mentioned the Hayward aspect of this where he too was trying to reintegrate himself as the former all-star and splashiest signing of the summer. 

This all came to a head in the 18-19 playoffs. Boston slept walk through the first round against Indiana, sweeping them 4-0. Irving was brilliant. Tatum was brilliant. The entire vibe was Boston runs the east and they are finally going to make their finals run this year. 

Then they ran into the buzzsaw of the Bucks. Boston won the first game but MIL made adjustments that basically took out Tatum and Brown. Both Tatum and Brown were rendered useless and their stats and efficiency plummeted. Boston fans turned to Irving as this was THE moment he can prove to them why he was THE guy. The one who can step up and lead the team and put away the up and coming Bucks. And mind you, Boston was stacked with talent. They had Kyrie/Tatum/Brown/Hayward/Roizer/Horford/Theis. They were the only team that had a chance against the Warriors or so we thought. 

So, what did Irving do given all that was at stake? If you ask Bill Simmons and any Boston fan, he quit on the team flatly. He was going through the motions. Didn't try on defense. He shot a horrific 30% from the field and 18% from 3 the final 4 games. And this was on 20+ shots in each of those games. Irving then left in the summer leaving Boston nothing to go join up with his buddy KD to form a new superteam and the damage was done.

Now hindsight can paint a picture that Irving just had a horrible shooting stretch at the worst time. No one wants to give credit to the Bucks but they also played fantastic defense as well. If you want to look at it from Kyrie's side, he saw how Boston turned on him in a second and he went to a team he thought actually appreciated him. Boston fans thought Irving lit a match to the bridge and tanked the games. 

I can see both sides of the argument. But it's still hilarious hearing Bill Simmons still talk about Kyrie and hear the disdain drip off of every word to this day.