Boston Celtics general manager Danny Ainge appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher and Rich Thursday to pull back the curtain on what the organization was dealing with in the months leading up Kyrie Irving’s departure to the Brooklyn Nets.
Ainge reveals that his conversations with Irving dating as far back as March clued him into the idea that the star point guard “really wanted to go home.”
“He did express to me on a couple of occasions between March and the end of (the season) that he really wanted to go home,” Ainge said. “I got the impression at that point that he wanted to play in Brooklyn more than he wanted to play in New York.”
Ainge’s remarks led to Celtics fans believing that the organization knew Kyrie was bound to leave. Ainge ended up calling the show back to make some clarifications.
“I did not say he said he was gone in March,” Ainge said. “He said the possibility of being gone was there, not that he was going to leave. There was still a strong possibility of him staying in Boston."
Either way, Ainge’s remarks support the narrative that Irving was contemplating, and maybe even leaning towards a departure to the Nets this summer well before the conclusion of the 2018-19 campaign.
On The Back to Back Pod with Shams Charania on Wednesday, Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie said Irving reached out to him in December about how playing in “New York might be real fun next year.”
“Actually, no. It definitely was December,” Dinwiddie recalls. “Because he made a comment to me. He was like, 'New York might be real fun next year.' Because I hadn’t signed yet. And I was like, 'Brother, I don’t know if they’re going to extend me or not.' He was like, 'I think New York might be real fun next year.'”
