“I felt like I was letting the team down at a point when I wasn’t able to play”: Kyrie Irving reflects on a drama-filled season after being swept by Celtics

The Brooklyn Nets struggled to cope without Kyrie Irving who was out for most of the season due to various reasons

While he may be one of the most gifted and skilled basketball players of all time, Kyrie Irving always finds himself in the middle of some controversy or the other. His life off the hardwood gets spoken about way more than his ability to score and dribble the basketball.

At the start of the 2021-22 season, Irving was ineligible to play for the team due to an executive order that required New York City-area professional athletes to be vaccinated.

On December 17th, 2021, the Nets would announce that Irving would join the team as a ‘part-time player’ and would be able to play in games outside of the New York area and Toronto despite being unvaccinated.

‘Uncle Drew’ would make his season debut on the 6th of January, 2022 against the Indiana Pacers and immediately created an impact with his presence on the floor.

22 points for Kyrie Irving in his season debut, helping lead the @BrooklynNets comeback! pic.twitter.com/z0XsJvsr5v

— NBA (@NBA) January 6, 2022

Also read: “The Boston Celtics are clearly looking better without Kyrie Irving”: Jalen Rose explains how the Celtics have improved despite losing the former champion

Just a month after Irving’s debut, James Harden was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers

The Brooklyn Nets had championship aspirations at the beginning of the season and were hoping that their ‘Big 3’ of Irving, Harden, and Kevin Durant would lead them in that direction.

Unfortunately, things would not play out in their favor due to Irving’s unavailability and Durant’s injuries which lead the team to fall out of the playoff picture.

Harden reportedly grew frustrated with all the drama surrounding the Nets.

James Harden: “Of course I’m frustrated because we’re not healthy, where there’s a lot of inconsistency for whatever reason, injuries, COVID, whatever you want to call it. I think everybody in this organization is frustrated because we’re better than what our record is.” #Nets

— Brian Lewis (@NYPost_Lewis) January 26, 2022

Harden and Paul Milsap were eventually traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and Ben Simmons and two first-round draft picks.

Irving would finally get some relief after Mayor Eric Adams announced that the city would be relaxing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate

This would allow Irving to play home games, a welcome sign for Brooklyn who could now focus on finishing the season strong and try and make it to the playoffs.

The Nets would finish as the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference after defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Play-In tournament.

They would face the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs, a series they were expected to win but to everyone’s surprise, the Celtics would go on to sweep the Nets 4-0.

“I felt like I was letting the team down at a point when I wasn’t able to play…it became a distraction at times”

Kyrie Irving talks about the challenges the Nets faced this season pic.twitter.com/e4y702Miyy

— Nets Videos (@SNYNets) April 26, 2022

“I just think it was really heavy emotionally this season. We all felt it. I felt like I was letting the team down at a point where I wasn’t able to play. We were trying to exercise every option for me to play but I never wanted it to just be about me. And it became a distraction at times”, said Irving in a press conference after game 4.

Irving plans on going nowhere next season and hopes to build a great future with the Nets. The only question is, can he be trusted?

Also read: ‘Kyrie Irving ain’t sh*# without LeBron James!’: NBA Twitter reacts as the KD-Kyrie tandem in Brooklyn cannot withstand the Celtics’ sweep