The fact that the Cavaliers traded Kyrie Irving to the Celtics in late August didn’t come as a huge shock to most people. Irving reportedly requested a trade in July, so NBA fans were at least aware that it might happen at some point over the summer. But as it turns out, Irving himself was surprised when the trade actually went through, because he was in a pretty strange place—without his cell phone, no less—when it happened.
Reggie Miller took part in an NBA on TNT media call this week, and he revealed that he was with Irving when the news about the trade finally came out. He was sitting with Irving, Chris Webber, and Nate Robinson in the back of a van in between shooting scenes for the movie Uncle Drew when all of their phones started buzzing to alert them Cleveland and Boston had agreed to an Irving-for-Isaiah Thomas deal. And he said it was momentarily awkward because Irving was the only one who didn’t know what was going on.
"We were in this small, hot, cramped van getting ready to shoot a scene and all of our phones ding at the same time, except for Kyrie," Miller said. "He didn’t have his phone."
They all looked around for a few seconds unsure of what to do, Miller said, until they decided that they had to tell Irving since he was right there.
"We’re looking at one another like, 'Should we tell him?'" Miller said. "Obviously, we had to tell him because he was, like, right in front of us, so we all showed him the phone."
And according to Miller, Irving had quite the response to the news. He didn’t start clapping or cheering or, well, doing much of anything. In fact, it sounds like he was really matter-of-fact about the whole thing.
"His expression was funny," Miller said. "He was like, 'Huh? Let’s do this.' And that’s how we all found out that he had been traded to the Celtics."
Irving was initially much more subdued than the rest of the NBA community was. But since then, his excitement level for playing in Boston has gone up a few notches, and with the start of the regular season just a few days away, we can only imagine how excited he is to get out there and take the court for the Celtics for the first time.
