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As stated earlier on CelticsBlog, one day after a 90 second, 39 word talk to the hand post game press conference, Kyrie Irving found himself in a more talkative mood on Monday as the Celtics practiced in San Francisco in advance of Tuesday night’s game against the Warriors.
His topic of choice….oddly enough, the media.
“I get tired of this stuff, just like everybody else,” Irving told reporters, “It’s a constant battle, because media has gotten just outrageous, you know what I mean? Like I just saw something the other day where, I mean, he’s the greatest player playing our game right now, but even seeing somebody question like LeBron’s [James] body of work, like my body of work, [Kevin Durant’s] body of work. And the team’s success falls on the best player, and whether to call that fair or unfair, nobody should ever question what type of winner those guys are, you know, what type of winner I am or whether or not I have the team in first mentality. It’s like nobody wants it to be solely about them, but we take most of the responsibility and so does the head coach.
LEADERSHIP!
— Nick Gelso (@CLNS_Nick) March 5, 2019
This is the Kyrie Irving that #Celtics fans knew prior to trade deadline.
Let's hope it continues. He really explains a lot about his recent mood & C's struggles in thoughtful fashion.
Video Courtesy of @GwashburnGlobe https://t.co/QJkFrCg0iC
“It makes players very unhappy, very unhappy, I’ll tell you that. I think somebody told me that Adam Silver was talking the other day about how unhappy NBA players are, especially nowadays just because of the scrutiny and exploitation that we go through of just everything being judged or someone being of a very high stature and people are just still throwing stones at them just trying to break them and break them. And words are very powerful.”
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“It’s not as bad as you make it seem, Irving said. You know, everyone’s not at odds with you all the time. You just get back to the root of what makes you tick and why you love the game of basketball. I’ve said it before, but I didn’t really come into this game to be cameras in my face and be famous, be a celebrity, whatever embodies that. So it’s a little hard for me, I wanted those things when I was younger, but at this point in my career, I just want to play basketball at a very, very high level, and the distractions that come within a team sometimes can get overwhelming, and I’m human.
It’s here that we should probably mention that Irving starred in a movie last summer and just signed on to executive produce and star in a Horror movie as well.
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Of course, what matters most to Irving is sheltering his teammates from the harsh media spotlight.
“And I just try to not let it seep into my teammates, and that’s the most important thing is setting an example for these young guys. And I don’t even want to call them young guys. They’re teammates. They really have a great passion for the game of basketball, and they’ve shown that they can play at a high level now.”
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