BOSTON — Turns out, LeBron James could still be the key to the Celtics’ chances in the Eastern Conference, even after folks in this town heaved a sigh of relief and offered their good-riddances when James bolted to the Lakers last summer.
On Wednesday here at the TD Garden, Boston ground its way to a brilliant and desperately needed 117-108 win over Toronto to scotch a three-game losing streak that had the Celtics’ season yet again on the brink of unraveling.
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Celtics star Kyrie Irving was the show, with 27 points (on 11-for-19 shooting) and 18 assists, but after the game, Irving stole the show from himself, saying he hasn’t been much of a leader to date. The Celtics have underachieved, and in the last couple of days, Irving has been taking responsibility for that after repeatedly calling out young teammates like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum for their me-first approaches.
To figure all this out and address his deficiency as a leader, Irving called James.
Yup, LeBron James — the guy who had eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and remains the most hated active American athlete in Boston, a city with a deep well of abnormal hatred reserved for opposing sports figures.
In fact, almost immediately after he first mentioned the call to James — once the gathered media began its assault of questions — Irving understood the nerve he’d touched.
"Relax, relax," he told the scrum in the Boston locker room, shaking his head and smiling. "We’re good. Once you mention LeBron, it brings extra questions."
Irving said he’d called James after the loss to Orlando last weekend, a loss that had frustrated Irving and led to his calling out his young teammates because they "don’t know what it takes to be a championship-level team." He didn’t particularly like the Celtics’ direction, or their fifth-place standing in the East.
"I’ll tell you one thing, and this was a big deal for me," Irving said. "I had to call LeBron and tell him, like, I apologize for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips and I wanted everything to be at my threshold. I wanted to be the guy that led us to a championship, I wanted to be the leader, I wanted to be all that. The responsibility of being the best in the world and leading your team is something that is not meant for many people.
"Bron was one of those guys who came to Cleveland and tried to show us how to win a championship. And it was hard for him, and sometimes getting the most out of the group is not the easiest thing in the world. Like I said, only few are meant for it or chosen for it, and I feel like the best person to call was him because he’s been in this situation. He’s been there with me."
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Irving, of course, forced his way out of Cleveland in the summer of 2017, after six seasons, a run of three straight Finals appearances and a championship. He made no bones about his motivation — he was tired of James’ shadow and wanted his own team to lead to a title.
But Irving is hardly a graybeard himself, and the obvious discomfort he’s had with leadership probably should not be a surprise. He will turn 27 in March and, until now, has never been the lead star on a good team in his career — not even in college at Duke, where he played just 11 games because of a foot injury before Cleveland drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 2011. His Cavs were a mess in his first three seasons, with a 78-152 record before James returned.
Irving was 22 then, same age as Brown, who has been the most frequent target for flak from Boston’s veterans, including an on-court scuffle with forward Marcus Morris in a loss to Miami last Friday.
Brown, with fellow youngsters Tatum and Terry Rozier, has plenty of reason to be frustrated. After nearly leading the Celtics to the Finals last year with a stunning playoff run that ended in Game 7 of the East finals, Brown, Tatum and Rozier were asked to step back into smaller roles.
For Brown, it’s been a much smaller role. He spoke out after Irving’s weekend criticism and just like that, the divisions that had been developing in the Celtics locker room spilled into public view. And Irving knew he was to blame, that he had been failing in the role of leader, the role he wanted so badly when he left Cleveland.
That spurred Irving’s outreach to James.
"I felt like the best person to call was him," Irving said. "Because he’s been in this situation. He’s been in this situation with me. I’ve been the young guy, being a 22-year-old kid and I want everything. I want everything right now... I think what that brought me back to was like, alright, how do I get the best out of this group to the success they had last year and then helping them realize what it takes to win a championship?"
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Games like the win over Toronto show the Celtics do have the talent to win a championship. That’s gone unquestioned, even as they’ve been maddeningly inconsistent. Boston was flat to start the game, but the Celtics dominated defensively in the second quarter, got 24 points from Al Horford and 18 off the bench from Hayward and were able to wear down the Raptors in the game’s final two minutes.
Credit Irving for that. Starting with a layup at 5:55 of the fourth quarter that made the score 94-94, Irving scored or assisted on all of the Celtics’ final 23 points. It helps to have talent.
But the Celtics need more than that from Irving. The leadership gap has been the overarching problem for Boston all season, the inability to bridge the agendas of last year’s young stars with this year’s veterans. Maybe it will be James who helps Irving and the Celtics solve it.
"Being in this position is something new for me," Irving said. "So, I take it with a grain of salt and I just enjoy all of it. Having that moment to be able to call a guy like that where we’ve been through so much, where we won a championship, where we were one of 31 teams, 32 teams to ever do something like that. It took a lot to think that our road could have been easier.
"Now, I’m in the position of, I asked for this. And I want this. I want the responsibility."
Have no fear, though, Celtics fans. Irving still gave the green light on all the usual LeBron-bashing.
"Obviously when he comes here," Irving said, "I’m going to try to kick his ass."