Kyrie Irving Details Past Celtics Superteam Transformation Plan

Kyrie Irving made an abrupt and ugly departure from the Boston Celtics six years ago, and it sent the fancy-dribbling guard’s vision for the C’s down the toilet.

Irving arrived in Boston when he no longer desired to play alongside LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics, prepared with a trade offer centering around Isaiah Thomas, acquired Irving and constructed an elite roster way ahead of its time — featuring Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

That team underwent a rollercoaster two-year run with Irving, and the 32-year-old veteran revealed that talks with then-Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge involved a superteam recruitment plan. Irving named two future Hall of Famers he wanted to bring to Boston: Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis.

“We all had that vision to play together in Boston,” Irving said, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “Danny Ainge had a large responsibility in that, trying to make it happen, make sure I stayed in Boston. But we had some young pieces in JT and JB and if we would have traded either one of them who knows if they win a championship. So the franchise had to do what was best for them, and I had to do what was best for me.”

Since Irving was out of Cleveland and James was left stranded making five-star meals out of two-week-old leftovers, the Eastern Conference was open for the taking.

Tatum and Brown, without Irving and Hayward, carried the Celtics to the conference finals before falling in Game 7 to James and the Cavaliers. This was a promising sign from a rookie Tatum and sophomore Brown, which proved Ainge’s draft instincts right and made the duo nearly untouchable for trade discussions.

Still, Irving insisted on adding Davis, a 10-time All-Star center, and Durant, a 15-time All-Star and two-time NBA Finals MVP, was the answer.

There hasn’t been a definitive, full-proof Magic 8 Ball produced yet, so we can’t say for sure what would’ve happened. But the thought of adding Durant and Davis alongside Irving and Tatum or Brown, with the coaching genius of Brad Stevens, certainly screams not one but multiple banners.

“In 2018, it was a dream for Kyrie, AD, KD to be on one team and still keep JT and let him grow and then see how it goes,” Irving said. “But back then, those young guys weren’t ready to be in trade rumors, man. Our locker room splintered after that, once they found out. It wasn’t JB or JT, but our locker room splintered once they started figuring out trade rumors, and our season started going in a whole different way.”

History, however, had other plans both for Irving and the Celtics.

Irving signed a four-year, $142 million deal with the Brooklyn Nets and joined forces with Durant. Together, they went nowhere. Brooklyn added James Harden and Blake Griffin, and Irving grew a rift with the team’s front office. The Nets, soon after, were forced to deal Irving and Durant ahead of the 2023 trade deadline upon request.

That marked Irving’s second straight messy departure, leading him to the Dallas Mavericks.

It’s still a stunning scheme that would’ve sent shockwaves across the league, in hindsight. Three years ago, Irving revealed a Celtics masterplan did exist but refused to offer any of the names or details involved.

“I told Boston, I was like, ‘I’m coming back.'” Irving said during a 2022 Twitch livestream as a member of the Nets. “And the reason why I said I’m coming back is because I had plans up my sleeve, y’all. When I tell y’all I had plans up my sleeve, I had plans up my sleeve. I’m not gonna tell y’all who I had in mind or what trade was gonna happen cause that’ll lead to speculation, but I had plans up my (expletive) sleeve. I was like, ‘Bro, I’m coming back. I’m coming back to Boston.'”

Tatum and Brown rewarded the Celtics for sticking with them by (ironically) defeating Irving and the Mavericks in last season’s Finals and delivering Banner 18.