Kyrie planned to leave Boston a year ago to join up with Durant

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/07/01/report-kevin-durant-and-kyrie-decided-before-last-season-theyd-join-same-team-in-free-agency/

This is not surprising.
It is understandable that he had a plan in place to leave Boston when we watched Kyrie's minimal effort in the Milwaukee series and in his lack of interest in getting along with his teammates this season.
He didn't care what happened this season, that's clearly evident.

tj,

Exactly right and is 100% why he should have been traded at the February deadline. At least at that point Ainge could have gotten assets back for Irving.

That’s flip* tampering, league better get a handle on this shit....

Ben Rohrbach @brohrbach
about 4 hours ago
So, Spencer Dinwiddie tells @Shams Charania that Kyrie Irving first inquired about the Nets situation in *December*. His initial text read: “New York might be real fun next year.”

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bob
MY NOTE: So, between releasing that Nike ad in November, and December, is how long Kyrie was happy as a Celtic. What a flake.


.

The team first concept is great and my guess would be that most players give their all to the team that they are playing for - but when free agency knocks on the door who knows for sure what will motivate a player to want to switch teams. It's a player choice - and the fans are helpless spectators.

swish

Who cares when Irving decided to leave? I am just so happy that he is GONE now, but do wish that Ainge had traded him for something at the deadline in February

cowens/oldschool wrote:That’s flip* tampering, league better get a handle on this shit....

100% agree. Players must be held to account and forced to honor their contracts. They need to build in more incentives that need to be met before realizing the full value of the contract. Between Kawhi sitting out an entire year to force a move, to Paul George refusing to play in OKC after just signing a big extension last summer - this has to stop.

Either that, or the NBA should just start selling Kyrie Irving shirts with no team name on them. Sad state of affairs.

mrkleen09 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:That’s flip* tampering, league better get a handle on this shit....

100% agree.  Players must be held to account and forced to honor their contracts.  They need to build in more incentives that need to be met before realizing the full value of the contract. Between Kawhi sitting out an entire year to force a move, to Paul George refusing to play in OKC after just signing a big extension last summer - this has to stop.  

Either that, or the NBA should just start selling Kyrie Irving shirts with no team name on them.  Sad state of affairs.

There has to be a rule that if a player threatens to dishonor his contract, etc, besides whatever deal, that team that the player goes to has to give up some mandatory draft picks, like 2 firsts. I know sometimes it ends up like that, but should be mandatory, plus whatever players that may agree on....plus a big lofty huge fine for the player for the integrity of the game.

Who?

gyso wrote:

Matty wrote:Who?

I think they are talking about Ray Allen's Voldemort's main henchman.  Just another Slytherin, most likely.  Definitely a Death Eater.  Look for the Dark Mark, a skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue, burned into his left inner forearm.  Many think it is just a tattoo, but it is much more than that.  It often leads to insanity, as we have witnessed over the last season.

Ahh, I was starting to think we were dealing with something out of Lovecraft's unpublished\unknown work the nightmare of cthulhu.

Either way Celtic fans appear to be safe now.

If I never hear his name again it will be too soon. HE THREW THE MILWAUKEE SERIES, I am totally convinced of that. No player with his ability plays like he did four games in a row. He did NOT want to win, because then he looks like a bigger fool for leaving a winning team. I am also convinced Wyc feels that way too.

AS THE KIDS USED TO SAY, GOOD RIDDENCE TO BAD RUBBISH

Looking forward, what matters for the Celtics is the recovery from the negative impact Kyrie had on three critical players - the two Js and Gordon. Gordon lost two years of All Star level play due to Kyrie's ill-advised pass (and help from ugly fouls by LeBron and Crowder). Jason started playing star-ball (emulating Kobie or Kyrie and ball hogging), which I find personally ugly aesthetically, but more importantly doesn't fit Brad's system or the Celtics ethos of team play. Jalen remains enigmatic to me, but when engaged he's a highly talented, near All Star level player. He spent a lot of the year in conflict with Kyrie and seemingly out of sorts because of that. If all three rebound strongly, the Celts should be a good team that's a piece or two away from title contention.

If a team is caught tampering with another player on another team, the rule should be that not only is that team fined but that team can no longer obtain that player via free agency nor trade. That oughta put a stop to that schzit.
I really don’t have an answer for player to player except same but the problem is how would anyone know that the players are in cahoots until after the deal is done? And how do you prove it.