Jayson Tatum Shares What He Took from Kyrie Irving’s Last Season with Celtics

Eric Jay Santos | Jun 2, 2024

Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

The Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks are set to compete in the 2024 NBA Finals. Kyrie Irving is a key component to the brewing rivalry.

Irving was a member of the Celtics from 2017 to 2019, during the early part of Jayson Tatum’s NBA career. The 8-time All-Star decided to leave the Celtics in free agency to team with Kevin Durant on the Brooklyn Nets, which garnered negative reactions from Boston’s fan base. 

Per Inside The Celtics, Tatum discussed his takeaways from teaming with Irving.

“Obviously there were some ups and downs, but for me being a first, second year player, being around a superstar, essentially, every day, and seeing how to navigate that space, and then obviously on the court, he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever seen. Seems like a very long time ago, but I got a lot of great memories from having Kyrie as a teammate.” 

Tatum explained why the 2018-2019 season was ‘terrible’ for the Celtics. 

 “Being on such a talented team, it’s not just talent that’s going to take you over the top. You have to have guys that are willing to sacrifice, guys that are willing to do the other things in order for the team to have a chance, and it wasn’t a Kyrie thing, it was all of us. We all took part in why that season wasn’t a success. We all learned from it — some of us stayed here, other guys left and have done great things since that season. I just look at that as a learning experience for my second year.”

Tatum thinks Irving is thriving in Dallas.

“It does feel like Dallas is obviously a great fit – they’re in the NBA Finals. The staff, the team, they all just kind of gel together, it’s great to see Kyrie out there playing at an extremely high level, doing all the special things that we love to see him do and have fun doing it.”