Kyrie Irving Was Not Happy With Gordon Hayward’s Decision Making At The End Of Celtics-Magic


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The Boston Celtics traveled to Orlando on Saturday night and were stunned by the Magic, falling 105-103 to their Eastern Conference foes. The manner in which the game ended appeared to make Kyrie Irving unhappy, as the All-Star guard was visibly upset with a decision that Gordon Hayward made with the game on the line.

The Celtics had the ball out of bounds on the sideline, and Hayward was tasked with getting the ball inbounds. The veteran wing threw a pass to Jayson Tatum, who missed a contested fallaway jumper that would have forced overtime if it went in. This led to a frustrated Irving — who started the sequence in the backcourt — confronting him after the miss.

Here’s the full video, watch Irving’s reaction when Hayward inbounds the ball to Tatum.

He was very obviously unhappy with Hayward’s decision, appearing to point to Al Horford and, eventually, walking away. Hayward confirmed after the game that Irving did, indeed, want the ball to go to Horford, who then would have gotten the ball to him for the shot.

Irving, meanwhile, needed some time to himself, sitting at his locker for an extended period after the game ended.

When he did speak to the media, Irving was candid about how his younger teammates need to step their game up if they want to be champions. He also spoke about expectations, namely the ones that existed last season on their conference finals run compared to the ones on the team this year.

Irving went on to turn the blame onto himself, saying that as a leader, he needs to be better, especially in games on the road.

Beyond the irony of Irving sounding a whole lot like LeBron James did at points during his second stint in Cleveland, it’s obvious that this loss — which knocked Boston to 25-17 on the season and six games behind the first-place Toronto Raptors — really impacted him. That could be a really good thing. Now, it’s on Irving to use that as the Celtics look to establish themselves as a title contender after a relatively rough start to the season.