LAS VEGAS - With Kyrie Irving now a Brooklyn Net, we’ve seen folks do what typically happens when a talented player takes their talent elsewhere - everyone has a boatload of negative comments about them.
But as you might expect, Brad Stevens isn’t one of those people as he addressed the media prior to Boston’s Summer League game against Denver on Tuesday night.
He touched on several topics, including the departure of Irving, which by most accounts was not an amicable parting of the ways.
When asked if there was anything he in hindsight felt he could have done for a different outcome, Stevens responded, "I don’t know if there’s anything anyone individually necessarily feels like they should have done or could have done [to keep Irving]. That’s part of free agency. You can go wherever you want."
Stevens added, “I enjoyed Kyrie; I like Kyrie. I wish him nothing but health and success.”
While the narrative often floated about tends to portray the Celtics’ problems boiling down to good and bad guys, Stevens was quick to point out that was not why the team had an underwhelming season that ended with the C's elimination in the second round by the Milwaukee Bucks.
“Anytime you go through a year like we went through where you don’t necessarily meet expectations...There’s probably going to be some change. And I don’t fault him one bit for choosing to follow whatever he wants to do; that’s his right.”
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