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BOSTON – There are certain truths when it comes to the Boston Celtics: the banners will always be prominently from the Garden rafters, the opponent will always be seen, and Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn will always espouse the virtues of the hometown team.
Right?
Well, hold on a minute.
Heinsohn, the team's television analyst who is affectionately known in Boston for being a homeless, departed from this usual stance on an issue of Kyrie Irving. Then, after a win Saturday against the Pistons in Detroit, Heinsohn doubled down, declaring, "[Irving] looks like he's five pounds overweight, but I have not seen him on a scale. "
Irving responded with a high-profile, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-octane, high-quality, high-quality, high-quality, high-quality, high-quality -point line.
He added 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 33 minutes of playing time and one-handedly accounted for a scintillating run in the third quarter of the game.
0:35
Kyrie Irving takes on the Pistons by himself, draining three 3-pointers from more than 25 feet in third quarter.
Immediately afterwards, NBC Sports Boston Reporter Abby Chin, Irving, "I want to give a shout out to my man, Tommy Heinsohn."
He then abruptly turned and strode off the floor. Was he being sarcastic? Facetious? Genuinely grateful? Who could be sure? After all, is the world round, or not?
Irving was far more expansive in a postgame lockerroom interview in which he conceded Heinsohn was right: he needed to be in better shape.
"I caught wind of [his comments] I was playing, "Irving said." I was playing, "Irving said." I had been playing at last year but also become better, so how do you do, I had to really put an emphasis on my body and how I was taking care of my mind. [Heinsohn’s comment] was one of the realest things I could have heard. If you're a competitor, if you do not want to be better, especially if you're a guy like Tommy Heinsohn, who would you like to see if you're a Celtic … I appreciate that .
"It was the truth." I was doing it. I was doing it. I was doing the next morning doing everything possible to prepare my body. "
Irving is coming off back-to-back knee surgeries that prematurely ended his inaugural season in Boston. Throughout the first 6 games, he was shooting 24.1 percent from behind the arc. Coach Brad Stevens bailed in preseason with would take time for both Irving and Gordon Hayward, who was coming off a serious injury, to regain their footing, and that has been true.
Yet Irving explained some of the struggles he has had in his work with a talent-laden team that he said in the preseason could beat Golden State in a seven-game series. His charge, he said, was "managing the way you start off a season."
"You do not want to be too much pressure on yourself," Irving said. "I think my focus has become so much more about myself, but how do I get a better leader for this team?" going, then so be it. "
The NBA championship is one of the most important events in the history of the 2016 NBA championship.
"Some of the movie I was watching, some of the shots that I was not taking or even collapsing the defense, they were still there," he said. "The respect was still there, it was not like anybody was going under my screens or anything like that."
Although Irving is a five-time All-Star, he spent his last years in Cleveland in the daunting shadow of LeBron James. Now that he's the lead dog on this Celtics team, he wants to make sure he manages it properly.
"[That means] not getting one-sided, "he said." Not trying to be too much of a play maker or just too much of a shooter, just trying to find the right balance. It's not an easy task for anyone. "
And yet Irving made it look easy in the final minutes of the third quarter, when he drilled a 3 from the top of the circle, then came down and nailed a 26-footer from the right side of the floor, then added a 30- Football to Blake Griffin to the Partisan Crowd (and, presumably Heinsohn) into a frenzy. He outscored Detroit 12-5 all on his own to close out that third quarter, staking Boston to 10-point advantage and basking in renewed songs of "MVP."
He did so much sporting shorn locks that, he revealed afterwards, are not nearly as good at the beginning of the year.
"It was just time," he said. "I had a great run I was used to." I'm happy I did it.
0:26
Kyrie Irving discusses cutting his hair, saying it was not he and he did not like having to maintain it.
That sounds good to his coach, who, when asked about Irving's breakout performance, said, "Law of averages."
Sounds good to his teammates like Aron Baynes, who understands that when Irving knocks down shots, "he becomes a target for the defense," which means someone else is open.
You can be sure it sounds good to Heinsohn too. He may have extracted a pound of flesh from Irving, but now he knows it.
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