Kyrie Irving Is Finally Teammates With Gordon Hayward After A Failed Recruiting Pitch In 2014


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Kyrie Irving is now a member of the Boston Celtics, a sentence that will be weird to type and even weirder to read for at least a few more days. But now that the deal is officially done, Irving will finally get to play with Gordon Hayward, who the Celtics have

As some pointed out in the aftermath of the deal, it fulfills a desire that Irving has long had to play with Hayward. In fact, he tried to bring the Utah Jazz star to Cleveland in 2014.

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The Cavaliers were in a very different place back then. Irving was a budding star on a team that wasn’t very good, and Hayward could have been the building block they needed to get back into contention. Instead, however, LeBron James decided to return to Cleveland, eventually bringing a championship to the city and stoking the fires of Irving’s eventual trade request.

What’s ironic is how much Kyrie’s replacement — point guard Isaiah Thomas — recruited Hayward this summer to bring him to Boston. In fact, it was his celebration of Hayward’s arrival that his former Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert was sure to remind the world of after Irving and Thomas switched teams.

It’s far too early to tell how Boston will play with Hayward and Irving on the new-look Celtics, but the early indications are that the biggest stars on the court are big fans of one another. After a summer of infighting, shade and major trade demands, that’s as good a start as any.

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