Nets’ Irving: ‘I failed’ my Celtics teammates

2:09 PM ET

NEW YORK — Kyrie Irving arrived at the Brooklyn Nets‘ media day ready to accept accountability.

Irving, who signed with the Nets over the summer, has quickly assumed the role as face of the franchise. Yes, Kevin Durant also signed with the team, but his Achilles injury will sideline him for the 2019-2020 season. It figures then that Irving will be the team leader.

However, leadership has not always been Irving’s strong suit.

It was no secret that Irving and the Boston Celtics had a rocky parting. At the beginning of last season, the guard told Boston fans that he was planning to re-sign with the franchise. He meant it at the time, he explained on Friday. But things changed. His grandfather died in late October and basketball became less important to Irving.

“A lot of the joy I had from basketball was sucked away from me,” Irving said at Media Day. “There was a facial expression I carried around with me throughout the year and I didn’t allow anyone to get close to me. It really bothered me. I didn’t take the necessary steps to get counseling or therapy. I had to acknowledge that fact.”

Things began to spiral, the locker room became fractured and Irving was unpredictable. The Bucks bounced the Celtics’ in the second round of the 2019 playoffs and by that time, Irving seemed to have already distanced himself from his teammates.

That distant and moody Irving was not the same guy who showed up to the dais for his press conference on Friday. Instead, he seemed reflective.

“A lot of those battles I thought I could battle through (in Boston’s) team environment, I wasn’t ready for,” Irving said. “And I failed those guys. I didn’t give them everything I could have during that season. In terms of me being a leader and bringing everyone together, I’ve failed.”

He is ready, he said, to snuff out the memory of turbulent days in Boston. He learned from that, he said, and now is ready to move on. He has come to Brooklyn, he said, with a “fresh mindset” – a mindset geared towards “honesty.”

By Irving’s account, he spoke with Brooklyn’s front office early on in free agency and expressed his “interest was very high.” Irving said he told Nets representatives that he was aiming to bring other All-Star talent with him to Boston. That came to fruition, as Durant and DeAndre Jordan both ended up signing with the Nets.

“It was really easy to see what these guys brought to the table,” Durant said of his decision to join Brooklyn. “It was pretty easy to figure out what kind of organization this place is.”

Durant went on to say that Irving is his best friend. The two of them expect to have a natural chemistry on the court. But Irving said firmly that he will never be pushing Durant to rush his rehab.

“We all know K was not ready to play,” Irving said of Durant’s return for the Warriors in the 2019 Finals. “We all know that, whether people want to admit it or not. He was out 31 days and we put him on a national stage in the Finals to end up selling a product that came before the person Kevin. Now, I’m here to protect that. And I’m going to be the protector all throughout the year and not allow people to infiltrate that circle.”

Only time will tell if Irving has grown or if his comments were simply diplomatic, but empty. But one way or another, a new era of Nets’ basketball has begun and Irving headlines that era.