Certainly one of funniest elements of the Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis commerce was that Danny Ainge (lastly) performed an element in facilitating a Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis pairing. When Ainge was President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics, he had at all times wished to get Irving and Davis in inexperienced.
In 2018, there have been studies that Davis and Irving talked about becoming a member of forces in Boston. It wasn’t recognized on the time was that Kevin Durant was part of these plans, too. Kyrie revealed these discussions on Tuesday night time after the Mavericks misplaced to the 76ers.
Kyrie Irving mentioned he, Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant talked about taking part in collectively in Boston again in 2018, with the hope to take action finally alongside Jayson Tatum.
“It was a dream for Kyrie, AD, KD to be on one crew and nonetheless hold JT and let him develop after which see the way it goes.” pic.twitter.com/TSAYnNjPQY
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) February 5, 2025
“All of us had that imaginative and prescient to play collectively,” Irving mentioned. “Danny Ainge had a big duty in that, attempting to make it occur, be sure that I stayed in Boston. However we had some younger items in JT and JB and if we’d have traded both of them who is aware of in the event that they win a championship. So, the franchise needed to do what was finest for them, and I needed to do what was finest for me.”
When he was requested if the plan was for himself, Davis and Durant to crew up in Boston, Kyrie added, “in 2018, it was a dream for Kyrie, AD, KD to be on one crew and nonetheless hold JT, let him develop and see the way it goes. However again then, these younger guys weren’t able to be in commerce rumors, man. Our locker room splintered after that, as soon as they discovered. It wasn’t JB or JT, however our locker room splintered after they discovered about these commerce rumors and our season went in a complete completely different route.”
It could have been fascinating to see these three gamers crew up on the Celtics, whereas protecting a younger Tatum on the crew. They might have, in all chance, been top-of-the-line groups within the NBA and competed for a number of championships.
I don’t assume that there are various Celtics followers who would have traded this timeline of occasions for that one. I definitely wouldn’t.