Author Topic: Kyrie called Lebron...  (Read 3856 times)

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Kyrie called Lebron...
« on: January 17, 2019, 12:31:04 AM »

Offline Tr1boy

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god I wish he didn't... but glad he did to tackle whatever demons he was dealing with

Quote
Boston Celtics star Kyrie Irving calls LeBron James after leadership lesson: “I apologized”

Before the buzzer had even sounded in Orlando’s Amway Center, an incredulous Kyrie Irving’s arms were already raised in disbelief. An inbounds play he’d hoped would come to him went somewhere else, robbing him of the chance to complete the comeback he’d helped lead.

He went at Gordon Hayward on the court. Afterwards, after he stewed at his locker while swiping through his phone, Irving matter-of-factly blamed Boston’s inexperience for the loss.

The dressing-down backfired, which showed Irving had as much to learn about being a leader as his young teammates had to learn about winning a championship. He picked up his phone again, and called a teammate he’d left in Cleveland.

""I had to call (LeBron James) and tell him, I apologized for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips."

Irving had realized the irony of message of experience being the great educator; that some of what led him away from LeBron is what has bothered him about the young players on this team.

“I’ve been the young guy, being a 22-year-old kid and I want everything,” he said, fresh off leading his team to a win over the Toronto Raptors. “I want everything right now. Coming off an All-Star year, stating, and this heck of a presence coming back and now I gotta adjust my game to this guy.”

The adjustments have been tough for guys like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Terry Rozier, all of whom played major roles in Boston’s playoff run last season. They spent a summer soaking in the adoration of fans and idols, signing shoe deals, and dreaming of big roles on a championship team. This hasn’t gone how anyone expected or wanted, especially not those in the Celtics locker room. They are keenly aware of their own struggles. And while they will internally address things that need to be done, reading about it just exacerbates the issue.


“We’ve just got to have each other’s backs at the end of the day,” Brown said after the loss in Brooklyn. “We can’t make comments, we can’t point fingers. We just have to continue to empower each other and have each other’s backs. If we don’t, if we start pointing fingers, everybody’s going to go into their own little shells."

“Going forward, I want to test these young guys, but I can’t be a bully like that,” Kyrie admitted on Wednesday night. “I want to get the best out of them, but I can’t do it personally like that. That was a learning experience for me of being in this position of really realizing the magnitude of my voice and what I really mean to these guys. I want to see them do well and do that where I empowered them. JB was right, I gotta do the right things and not point fingers at individuals.”

Irving realizes that leading a group with such high expectations is new for him, and the lesson he learned after his comments in Orlando will be a valuable one. Calling LeBron to talk about it was a necessary step for him.

“Having that moment to be able to call a guy like that where we’ve been through so much, where we won a championship together, where we’re one of 31 teams, 32 teams to ever do something like that,” he said. “It takes a real man to go back, call somebody and be like, ‘hey, man, I was young. I made some mistakes, I wasn’t seeing the big picture like you were. I didn’t have the end of the season in mind. I just wanted to get my stats and make All-Star games.’”

When Kyrie finally pulled his earbuds out and sat in front of the assembled media in Orlando, the first thing he said Boston needed was experience. It was also what he, as a leader, needed. Now that he’s got a little more of it, he can look back on some of the things that may have bothered him in Cleveland and understand them a little better. He’s now taken a little step forward in his new role, and it’s given him a little more appreciation of the past.

“It was just good,” he said. "And it gave me a peace of mind to go about what I’ve gotta go do. Obviously I’m going to be competing against him the best and everybody else in the league. But it was good.”

Re: Kyrie calls Lebron...
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2019, 12:31:24 AM »

Online ozgod

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Any odd typos are because I suck at typing on an iPhone :D

Re: Kyrie calls Lebron...
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2019, 12:32:24 AM »

Offline Tr1boy

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and after tonights game....Kyrie is fast tracking his leadership skills like I can't believe...good for him!

18 assists and 3 pt dagger in Leonards face!

Quote
“I want to see them do well and do that where I empowered them,” Irving said. “JB was right, I’ve got to do the right things and not point fingers at individuals and really realize what we can do as group, despite when we go on the road or the mishaps we may have. I’ve been there to the championship, I’ve tasted it. But I can’t expect that they’re gonna get it. Just really working on my patience and just coming to helping these guys realize that we can do it against the best teams. But in order to be that championship level team, we gotta do that every single day to help our team prove to not just the Raptors or Golden State that we can play with them, but we gotta prove it to every team that we can really pair with them. That’s just the confidence we have to have and the mindset I think we’re getting.”

Re: Kyrie calls Lebron...
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2019, 12:37:47 AM »

Offline Tr1boy

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Here's the full interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7jCllkvjU

Kobe helps Tatum

and Lebron helps Kyrie who is a Celtic now

what the hell is going on??


Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #4 on: January 17, 2019, 02:45:36 AM »

Offline TheReaLPuba

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Kyrie calling LeBron is the definition of leadership.

Celtics should do whatever they can to re-sign this guy.

I was wrong about this cat.

Irving has all the physical talent and skill in the world....now he’s becoming a teammate others will not only follow....but die for him.

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2019, 03:09:38 AM »

Offline Jvalin

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I bet this is the reason he had a career high 18 assists tonight.

He calls LeBron asking for advice and in the very next game he tries to keep everyone involved on offense. Sounds like something LeBron might have advised him to do. After all, LeBron is a pass-first type of player himself.

Not the biggest fan of Kyrie, but I got to admit he was truly special tonight! :) Hope he embraces this new selfless style of play in the future.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2019, 10:09:41 AM by Jvalin »

Re: Kyrie calls Lebron...
« Reply #6 on: January 17, 2019, 05:55:36 AM »

Offline FatKidsDad

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Here's the full interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7jCllkvjU

Kobe helps Tatum

and Lebron helps Kyrie who is a Celtic now

what the hell is going on??
COLLUSION!
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"Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity,they think of you." -   H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #7 on: January 17, 2019, 07:04:58 AM »

Online trickybilly

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Did anyone else think there was anything problematic with Kyrie's comments. They could easily be interpreted as yet another sleight towards the Jays. "I was a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ty rook, just wanted stats: don't be like me"

Like how is how you were as a rookie inform your supposedly new-found leadership skills?
"Gimme the ball, gimme the ball". Freddy Quimby, 1994.

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2019, 07:15:24 AM »

Offline jbpats

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Did anyone else think there was anything problematic with Kyrie's comments. They could easily be interpreted as yet another sleight towards the Jays. "I was a ****ty rook, just wanted stats: don't be like me"

Like how is how you were as a rookie inform your supposedly new-found leadership skills?

I truly believe Kyries comments were in good nature, however when I read this article today I thought the same thing. I can see how the young guys can interpret this as another jab at them.

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2019, 07:19:02 AM »

Offline Roy H.

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I don't find this to be particularly encouraging.  Lebron is great in a lot of areas, but I don't think he's a great leader.  His locker room wasn't cohesive, he was passive aggressive, he pouted, he isolated players, he took plays off, he undermined his coach, he criticized management, he wouldn't commit to the team.

Lebron is more of a "lead by example" guy, and in the past few seasons that hasn't really started until the playoffs.


I'M THE SILVERBACK GORILLA IN THIS MOTHER——— AND DON'T NONE OF YA'LL EVER FORGET IT!@ 34 minutes

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2019, 07:22:17 AM »

Offline ederson

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It could also be interpreted as an advice. 'I did the same and now I realise it was not in best interest of the team'

That is how a down to earth player should understand this

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2019, 08:59:15 AM »

Offline Green-18

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Am I being too cynical by suggesting that Kyrie used the LeBron call to reinforce his point about the young guys on this team?  I like Kyrie but I'm not convinced that he truly views LeBron as a great leader.  He just happens to share a mutual frustration.  I still believe that Kyrie would like to distance himself from the LeBron style of leadership, which is NOT a bad thing.   

We heard a couple of apologies from Kyrie over the past few days, including the admission that Jaylen's comments about top-down leadership were correct.  His phone call with LeBron could be interpreted as a backhanded way of validating his concerns about the young players, as well as justifying his own frustrations as a leader.

I'm not necessarily saying that any of this is a bad thing.  I just don't see the need for Kyrie to go public with the Lebron phone call unless there is an agenda behind it.  It would have remained private if he was only concerned about apologizing.  Kyrie wants to make it clear that he was wrong and needs to grow as a leader, but he doesn't want you to forget that he was right about the young guys being entitled.

Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #12 on: January 17, 2019, 09:39:16 AM »

Offline seancally

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I don't find this to be particularly encouraging.  Lebron is great in a lot of areas, but I don't think he's a great leader.  His locker room wasn't cohesive, he was passive aggressive, he pouted, he isolated players, he took plays off, he undermined his coach, he criticized management, he wouldn't commit to the team.

Lebron is more of a "lead by example" guy, and in the past few seasons that hasn't really started until the playoffs.

Lebron is, in a way, Kyrie’s former mentor / boss. It would crazy to think these guys just cut ties entirely. He wanted counsel, he wanted to come clean, he wanted to improve himself. It’s clear Kyrie knows he needs to lead and (as he mentioned) he’s still learning how to do that. Kyrie didn’t say, “I wanna lead like Lebron.” Maybe he thinks that, but he didn’t say that’s his goal. He probably just realized that Lebron is one of the most successful players to have ever played the game in terms of winning and playoff achievement, and it’s not because Lebron is a great player who cant lead. He obviously can lead and he, too, learned how best to do so over his career.

I’m a little tired of Boston fans nitpicking over these audio clips. Kyrie is not Rudy Giuliani - there isn’t always some agenda behind everything. I take this at face value and, having watched the interview live, found it refreshing. We’ll see if it translates going forward but the fact that Kyrie hit a career-high in assists and deferred to the hot hand (Hayward) in the last play of the first half bodes well and backs up his comments, at least for one game.
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Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2019, 09:39:24 AM »

Offline Androslav

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How the actual phone call went:

KI: "Yo 'Bron!"
LBJ: "Hi, Man! 'Sup?"
KI: "Good, good...you?"
LBJ: "This leg thing, I'll be ait, but..." (interrupted)
KI: "We play Toronto today. You know, Kawhi (LBJ: ...gulp...) and his squad."
"Just watch today. Imma drop 30&20 on him tonite! Something you could never do. Imma bust his ass on TV!"
LBJ: "C'mon man, I thought we were cool bro."
KI: "Yea' we cool, we really cool. You know what else? "Imma tell everyone that I said sorry to you, which I am of course not, as I don't have any reason to do so. You still didn't give me props for making your Cleveland career not-miserable (0-11). The media will swallow it - easy."
LBJ: "They won't, they didn't buy that I'm the GO...(hangs up)..AT."

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Re: Kyrie called Lebron...
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2019, 09:55:43 AM »

Offline Green-18

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I don't find this to be particularly encouraging.  Lebron is great in a lot of areas, but I don't think he's a great leader.  His locker room wasn't cohesive, he was passive aggressive, he pouted, he isolated players, he took plays off, he undermined his coach, he criticized management, he wouldn't commit to the team.

Lebron is more of a "lead by example" guy, and in the past few seasons that hasn't really started until the playoffs.

Lebron is, in a way, Kyrie’s former mentor / boss. It would crazy to think these guys just cut ties entirely. He wanted counsel, he wanted to come clean, he wanted to improve himself. It’s clear Kyrie knows he needs to lead and (as he mentioned) he’s still learning how to do that. Kyrie didn’t say, “I wanna lead like Lebron.” Maybe he thinks that, but he didn’t say that’s his goal. He probably just realized that Lebron is one of the most successful players to have ever played the game in terms of winning and playoff achievement, and it’s not because Lebron is a great player who cant lead. He obviously can lead and he, too, learned how best to do so over his career.

I’m a little tired of Boston fans nitpicking over these audio clips. Kyrie is not Rudy Giuliani - there isn’t always some agenda behind everything. I take this at face value and, having watched the interview live, found it refreshing. We’ll see if it translates going forward but the fact that Kyrie hit a career-high in assists and deferred to the hot hand (Hayward) in the last play of the first half bodes well and backs up his comments, at least for one game.

I don't normally fall into the trap of reading into every comment, but why wouldn't Kyrie keep the LeBron conversation to himself if there was no agenda?  I believe he put it out there for two reasons.

1.  He values his image and wants to show that he has humility
2.  Part of him wants to reinforce his comments from the other night, only in a much more positive light.  He needs to show that he was wrong, yet it's important to convey his general belief that the young guys don't understand what it takes to win.  The only difference from the other night is that he is acknowledging that the struggles are part of their natural growth.

For the record, I am not trying to bash or hate on Kyrie at all.  I actually don't mind what he said.  I just believe it's worth reading into his comments.  Kyrie clearly put a lot of thought into this.