Kyrie Irving is ready to go home. The 6 times All-Star has already targeted his next mission: to make the Nets great, the team for which he has always supported as a child and who has chosen in this free agency. "This is where my heart is" the 27-year-old said, determined to forget the bad Celtics experience and re-launch in Brooklyn. All waiting for his friend and new mate Kevin Durant who will not play 2019/2020 but who will join Kyrie as soon as possible to form a super team that already puts the shivers to the rest of the League.
"This has always been my dream," says Kyrie Irving in a video on ESPN. For him, a boy from New Jersey who grew up admiring the games of his favorite team, choosing the Nets in the Brooklyn version (putting his signature on a four-year, $ 141 million) was all about love. Even with the hand of the GM, Sean Marks, and Spencer Dinwiddie, the new companion who convinced him to go with the cause: "Home is where the heart is'' says Kyrie, "and my heart is right here, especially thanks to the affection I received from my parents throughout my life and the way I grew up".
A decision that has a double meaning, both in technical terms (especially to join Kevin Durant, that will miss the whole next season due to the Achilles tendon fracture remedied in race-5 of the Finals) and as a tribute to his childhood: “I wouldn't change anything about those days. This is where my family is. The place I chose to leave my legacy. I am very happy to be in Brooklyn”. The Nets, for Kyrie, is the place of the heart but also the place of rebirth after the failure he'd experienced in the Celtics lately.
The former Duke, in fact, is back from 2 very difficult years: first the injury and the left knee surgery that excluded him from the playoffs in 2018, then the return in last season, seasoned with promises of eternal love at the TD Garden.
Promises never kept: Irving failed to win the hearts of Boston fans (many of whom regretted Isaiah Thomas, who left via trade for Kyrie) or to create a constructive relationship with coach Stevens and with President Danny Ainge. But the worst has lived in the locker room, where the chemistry that made fuel in the post-season of 2018 (closed in the Conference final against the Cavs of LeBron James even without the same Kyrie and Gordon Hayward) dissolved and its ability to act as guide for the young Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier (now started for Charlotte), has gradually faded, together with the hope of the team's title.
Irving is in Brooklyn to write the most important chapter of his career, starting in 2019/2020. Because the absence of KD puts all the keys of the team in the hands of Kyrie, called by coach Atkinson to prove he really is a leader, forgetting the problems of Boston and the role of Robin lived for 3 seasons at the Cavs of Batman LeBron James.
In short, if the X hour in Brooklyn is officially triggered in 2021 when the staff will be full and the ring dreams even more manifest, the moment of truth for Irving has already arrived.
Comments