Kyrie Irving Credits Announcer Tommy Heinsohn for Calling Him Out: 'He Got Me in Shape'

Kyrie Irving responded with warmth to Celtics great Tommy Heinsohn's speculation a week ago that Kyrie was a bit overweight when he started the season.

Kyrie Irving
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Image via Getty/Maddie Meyer

Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving has looked a little off to begin the 2018-19 NBA season. It's easy to chalk it up to the rust from when he missed the last quarter of the regular-season and Boston's run through the playoffs last year following the removal of two screws in his kneecap. But former Celtics great Tommy Heinsohn, now Boston's explicitly pro-Celtics announcer, said he thought Kyrie looked a bit overweight after the layoff. 

"To me he looks like he's five pounds overweight," Heinsohn said about a week ago. "But I haven't seen him on a scale."

With his hair back at its pre-injury length, Kyrie put up 31 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a 108-105 win over the Pistons on Tuesday night, he actually gave Heinsohn some DAP for speaking up about his weight.

"Shout out to my man Tommy Heinsohn" Kyrie said in his post-game comments from the floor. "Real talk, he got me in shape."

So far this season, despite Tuesday night's monster performance when he went 4-of-7 from deep, and 10-of-16 overall, Irving was shooting 30.6 percent from three-point range (24.1 before Tuesday night), and a bit over 42 percent overall (39.1 *before Tuesday night*). Worse than that was how bad the Celtics looked with him on the court vs. when he took a seat and let super-sub Terry Rozier helm the Celtics' offense. They're a - 2.7 net rating when he's on the court (he was positive last night), but a whooping +19.1 when he sits.

Tommy might've been right, or it's Kyrie's haircut that did the trick. Regardless, the C's needed the old Kyrie if they're going to have any chance of winning a title this season. Toronto is lurking and the Warriors are still the Warriors—perhaps more so this season.

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