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Brown addressed the belief of some people that Irving is toxic, but thinks the bulk of the blame Kyrie absorbed was undeserved.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: People have often said and made narratives about Kyrie being toxic. I don’t think that’s true, what do you say to people who question his heart and his ability to play the game of basketball?
Jaylen Brown: Everybody is going to have their own opinion. I don’t think Kyrie cares too much, maybe he does, and maybe he [Kyrie] shouldn’t care as much as he does. He’s Kyrie Irving at the end of the day … nobody is perfect. Kyrie got a lot of the blame and was undeserving. It wasn’t his fault that certain guys couldn’t take a step back. It wasn’t his fault. That was the front office and the coach’s fault. He gets a lot of that blame because he was the star. But a lot of that should be on the organization and coaching staff. It’s in the past. Kyrie is in a better place in Brooklyn, somewhere his roots are. He’ll be fine.
I have a theory, based on things like this:
If you have to say you’re something, you are not that thing.
The C’s keep saying that they’re over last year.
They’re not.
Viz. the above comments from Jaylen Brown.
To the extent that the Celtics have taken the disappointments of last season and used them as fuel for this season, it’s perhaps a good thing that they’re not quite over last season yet.
However, I can’t say that I’m completely comfortable with Brown’s comments.
From my perspective, this is a really questionable inference:
It wasn’t his fault that certain guys couldn’t take a step back. It wasn’t his fault. That was the front office and the coach’s fault.
If you can’t accept the role that you’re assigned, that is principally on you. That’s nobody else’s fault.
Now, overall, I’m a fan of Jaylen. I don’t know what his ceiling is, and I think, as a player, he’s very much in the 60s Celtic mode. As with Marcus Smart, I think his individual stats are a woefully inadequate measure of his value to the team.
However, that comment, like his ‘five titles in six years’ comment from last fall, reflects a player who still has some growing up to do.
There are two great discoveries on the road to adulthood: The first is that nobody is the same as you. The second is that everybody is the same as you.
Last winter, Jaylen bristled when Kyrie targeted the ‘young guys’ for criticism after a game. Here, he’s targeting the coaching staff and front office for criticism.
Bottom line: If it bothered you to be on the receiving end of blame that should have been shouldered collectively, that should check your tongue before you attribute blame to others that should be shouldered collectively.
However, I don’t want to come down too hard on Jaylen. Lord knows, there are things I said when I was 23 that I wish I could take back, and as I said, I think he’s going to be an indispensable part of an incredible Celtics team.
Page 2: Where the menu’s getting a bit thin at the International House of Centers
The Boston Celtics announced today that back-up center Vincent Poirier suffered a fractured right pinkie finger during yesterday’s practice. The team says the injury will require surgery, which is expected to keep him out for approximately six weeks.
Counting Tacko Fall, the Celtics are carrying five centers on their roster from five different countries.
The team’s USA rep was ruled out yesterday with a bone edema (which sounds really painful), and today the team’s French center was sidelined for six weeks with a broken finger. That leaves only the Turk and the German on the active roster, with Senegal’s Tacko Fall available in limited quantities due to his two-way contract.
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