Should fans focus on Kyrie's leaving, or remember him for helping them to a championship?
I can't help but compare him to Ray Allen:
* Both helped their team to a title;
* Both left their team for a primary conference rival;
* Both took less money than they could have;
* Neither communicated with their teammates before leaving town.
So, is he "Benedict Kyrie" there? And if so, does that fan base come across as a little ungrateful?
I'm not sure why you have such a personal vendetta against Kyrie, but you really seem to be going out of your way to do everything you can to try and smear his image and turn Celtics fans against him.
The Kyrie situation is not the same as the Ray Allen situation.
Ray SituationPierce, KG and Ray all formed together willingly in Boston. Even though KG and Ray arrived via trade, those trades essentially happened because they told their former teams that they were happy to be there - they wanted to go to Boston, they wanted to form a Big 3 together, they wanted to compete for titles together.
And they did. They won a title their first year together, and followed that up with multiple years of deep playoff runs.
Then they forged a bitter rivalry with the Heat - these teams practically had pure hatred for each other - and after an extremely painful and hard fought loss at the hand of the Heat, rather than saying "lets come back harder next year and beat them this time", Ray left and joined them. It's not that he joined the rival Heat, it's that he joined the rival Heat AFTER the Celtics just lost to them in heartbreaking fashion. It's like Ray just gave up and said "If you can't beat them, join them" and skipped town.
Then to make matters worse, Ray made major compromises to join the Heat. Not only did he take a LOT less money (less money than the Celtics had already offered him, along with apparently a no trade clause), he also took a lesser role. He would have been at least a 6th man in Boston, and would have played starters minutes due to their lack of depth. So he sacrificed money, a no trade clause
and minutes to go to Miami. That was basically a massive "screw you" to Boston.
Then on top of all this, once he eventually DID go to Miami, he went on to make it a point to publically badmouth the Celtics organisation at every opportunity.
Kyrie SituationTo start with, Kyrie never chose to play with Lebron or with Kevin Love. He never agreed to join up with those guys in Cleveland. He was drafted to Cleveland, and the Cavs offered him an extension with all the promise that they would build around him as the centre and franchise player of the team. Then right after he accepted that extension, they signed Lebron James and traded for Kevin Love, and suddenly Kyrie was stuck as the #2 man living constantly in Lebron's shadow. Kyrie was the face of the Cavs when he signed his extension - Lebron was the face of the Cavs the instant he showed up. So Kyrie was basically lied to, and then forced into a situation that he never really wanted to be in - and credit to him for ultimately keeping his mouth shut for 3 seasons and trying to make the best of it. Unlike Ray who was traded to a situation he WANTED to go to.
Secondly, Kyrie has two years left on his deal, and he's stuck in the middle of a Cavs team that ultimately has clear no future direction. They just lost their GM who helped put this whole winning franchise together. On top of that Lebron is on the last year of his deal, and there's a great deal of speculation that he will leave next year. If he does then the Cavs would still be way over the cap, so it would be years before they would be able to clear enough cap space or acquire enough assets to actually make the team relevant again - Kyrie could waste the next 3-5 seasons on a crappy lottery bound Cleveland team with lost management that doesn't know what they are doing. Comparatively, Ray Allen knew exactly where he was with Boston. They were in win-now mode and they wanted a championship, nothing less. There was no such uncertainty. Boston's front office wasn't going anywhere, and Doc would have stuck around longer for sure if Ray had stayed - he would have had certain continuity.
Thirdly. Kyrie didn't take less money to come to Boston, really. He sacrificed a trade kicker. That trade kicker was money that he never would have made if he stayed in Cleveland. It's extra money he COULD have made on top if he came to Boston, but he waived it to make the deal happen. He's not losing any money there. As far as I know Boston will retain his contractual rights just as Clevleand would have, so he shouldn't be giving up any money when it comes time to resign either. So not the same as Ray, who took LESS money and sacrificed a no trade clause to skip town to the rival.
Next, Kyrie left to go to Boston in the aim of a bigger role on the team. In Cleveland he was Robin, Lebron was Batman. Kyrie is tired of being Robin, he feels he's good enough to be Batman, so why should he be somebody's Robin? He knows as long as he's in Cleveland he can NEVER be Batman, and the only way for that to happen is for him to leave town. So he did exactly that, requested to be transferred to a city where he can be Batman. Ray Allen on the other hand was Robin in Boston - fighting by Batman's side every day. He gave up the role of Robin so that he could be demoted to the role of Alfred, Batman's butler, in Miami - so he could make a living bringing Batman ice tea and shining his shoes.
Finally, Kyrie did not leave to join the guys who just beat him. Nobody can accuse him of being cowardly by taking on a "if you can't beat them, join them" mentality. Nobody can accuse him of saying "I want to take the easy way to a title, I'm going to leave my team and go join the favourites". No. If anything he's doing the opposite - he's leaving the easy path and taking the more challenging path. He's recognising that he's not gong to develop as a player if he keeps playing second fiddle to the very best - the only way for him to push the envelope and become better as a player is for him to go AGAINST the best, You have to go against the best and beat the best in order to become the best - he's welcoming that challenge. He knows Lebron is the best player in the NBA - he knows that in order to become the player he wants to be, he needs to beat Lebron. That way he can well and truly prove that he IS Batman, not just Robin hiding inside a Batman suit.
Finally, I have not heard Kyrie say a single bad thing about Cleveland or any of his former teammates since the trade. He's expressed nothing but love for the City, for the team, for his former teammates. He's been poked and prodded constantly by reporters trying to get juicy gossip out of him, and he's blatantly denied and absolutely refused to give in and say a single bad thing. He's handled that side of things with the utmost of class, and even if he DOES had negative feelings towards Lebron or Cleveland, he's keeping it to himself.
So in actual fact, what Kyrie is doing he is not even remotely close to what Ray did. It's actually pretty much the complete opposite of what Ray did.
Look man, I have no problem with you NOT liking the trade. I have no problem with you NOT liking Kyrie and NOT wanting him to be a Celtic. I have no problem with you NOT wanting Isaiah to be in Cleveland. I totally respect those feelings that you have, and I understand them completely.
I have my own reservations about this trade. I don't necessarily love all facets of the deal. I don't necessarily love where the Celtics are as a team right now - I feel the roster is full of holes and filled with uncertainty, and that the team is investing way too much hope in the highly optimistic hope that one or two of our prospects are going to leap out of nowhere, put on a cape, and be the saviours for this team. I also worry that we gave up a lot of our future flexibility to be where we are, and if a trade does come up for somebody like Anthony Davis, we are no longer the team best equipped to pull it off - in fact I feel that we, for the first time in years, have relatively little to offer. I'm also not 100% convinced this team will be capable of playing anything resembling passable defence, I'm concerned about our total lack of rebounding, and I'm legitimately concerned that Kyrie may never become the Batman that he believes he is - I think he it's certainly possible, but hardly a given.
So I do completely understand your reservations. However what I think is not cool is that I feel like you are just making one attempt after the other to try to twist reality in your favour in order to smear Kyrie - and I don't think that's fair. The guy is a legitimate star, he's in Boston, he WANTS to be in Boston, and he wants to be the best Celtic he can be for us - the fans. Why don't we at least give him that chance?
I still recall how many people hated the Pierce/KG trade. I remember how may people hated the Isaiah Thomas trade - so many CBloggers were complaining that Thomas isn't good enough to carry a team, that he's too short, that he's too much of a defensive liability, that he's a ball hog, a chucker and a black hole. I think anybody would be hard pressed right now to criticise either of those two moves. So lets give Kyrie a chance to play his way into our hearts, just as Isaiah did.