Casting Kyrie Irving’s haunted hotel movie with the trade deadline’s biggest players

With all the chatter about Kyrie Irving potentially leaving Boston and reuniting with LeBron James in Los Angeles, this little tidbit could strike more fear in the hearts of Celtics fans: Kyrie is making another movie in Hollywood. From Variety:

NBA Star Kyrie Irving will star in and executive produce a currently untitled horror movie with Imagine Entertainment about an Oklahoma hotel that has a reputation of being haunted.

Imagine Entertainment has preemptively optioned an upcoming Players’ Tribune article, an oral history of experiences from NBA stars who have stayed at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. The hotel is frequented by traveling NBA teams, but some players refuse to stay there because of its reputation. The hotel was opened in 1911 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Kyrie brought his Uncle Drew character to the silver screen last year and according to box office reports, the movie has made nearly $47M worldwide with an initial budget of $17M. And now, he’s making a movie with one of the best producers in the business, Brian Grazer. We’ve seen professional athletes dip their toes in the entertainment industry, most notably his former teammate in Cleveland, LeBron James.

Could Irving’s growing interest in the big screen signal a possible move to the west coast for the bright lights of Tinseltown and Staples Center? After calling LeBron for advice and to apologize for his immaturity when James came back to the Cavs, James sang Fetty Wop’s “Rewind” on his social media, tagging and calling out Kyrie in his Instagram story. Rumors abound that both suggest that Irving is considering re-teaming with LeBron this summer and confirm his early season intentions of re-signing in Boston.

Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

Trade season is silly season in the NBA and the best advice to get through the next nine days of drama (unless that’s your thing) is to have a little levity with all the pomp and posturing. In that spirit, we’ve cast Kyrie’s haunted hotel movie with his Celtics teammates (and some popular villains):

JAYSON TATUM as The Hot Girl: Tatum was recently chosen for the Rising Stars Game (who coincidentally will be directed coached by Iving) and he’s the young ingenue of any package for Anthony Davis. If AD survives the February 7th trade deadline and remains in New Orleans, Dell Demps and the Pelicans front office will be coming for Tatum with these his final last words: “I’d trade me too for Anthony Davis.”

AL HORFORD as The Wise Old Guy: As the elder statesman of the group, Horford makes for the calming voice of the locker room, but also someone that’s seen some carnage in his life. The 32-year-old big man has seen a 60-win Hawks team killed off one by one and been a part of a rebuilding Celtics squad that rose from the dead last season to make it to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

MARCUS SMART as The Survivor: Only one player has been in Boston since Brad Stevens started scouting the draft and coaching the Celtics. Marcus Smart has weathered everthing: his own bad shooting, punching picture frames on the road, and a lengthy restricted free agency. And yet, he’s still standing. He may not make it to the end of the movie (because Smart’s $50M/4-year contract is the kind of deal that gets packaged into big trades), but he won’t go without some scratching and clawing.

LEBRON JAMES as The Villain: Whether the bad guy in Kyrie’s haunted hotel is a ghost lost in limbo or a murdering psycho, there is nobody more fitting for that role than LeBron James. He’s now in the purple and gold, he’s been a Celtics killer for the better part of the last decade, and he’s threatening to not only get Anthony Davis to LA, but coax Irving to join them next summer. (runner up: the Rose Rule)

ANTHONY DAVIS as The Sequel: Every great horror movie has a cliffhanger and a sequel “coming next year.” For the Celtics, Danny Ainge and Mike Zarren will be biting their fingernails until the deadline and even longer still until July 1st. Dating back to even making the Big Three trade for the Nets picks, they’ve been stockpiling an arsenal of draft picks and young talent in order to target Anthony Davis.