Kyrie Irving, before deciding to get going from Boston had tried recruiting Anthony Davis ahead of his move to LA.
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As it turns out, Kyrie Irving’s preferred destination wasn’t always the Brooklyn Nets. In fact, to the surprise of almost all Bostonians, he really wanted to stick with the Celtics.
The 7x All-Star before his fallout with C’s, and before he talked KD into signing with the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019, was attempting to create something in Boston.
Had that materialized, it might have changed the course of NBA in how it played out in the last 3-years and maybe forever. The Celtics might have had a starting lineup having someone among Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayword (whoever they could keep from a trade to the Pelicans) alongside Jayson Tatum, Irving, and Anthony Davis.
Report: Kyrie Irving tried to recruit Anthony Davis to the Celtics before the 2 players had a ‘falling out’ https://t.co/eDRNCKXEPV
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) February 25, 2022
Yes! The Lakers’ superstar could have landed in the rival team across the conference if we are to believe Heavy.com.
Kyrie Irving recruited Anthony Davis to the Celtics
Just a few days back Steve Bulpett of Heavy revealed that three years ago, Kyrie before he left Boston for Brooklyn, set out to recruit Davis to the Celtics. It never happened due to a ‘falling out’ between the two players.
“It was looking like Anthony Davis was going to go to Boston with Kyrie there for a stretch,” a league executive told Heavy. “That’s what Kyrie wanted. Boston would have had to work It out with New Orleans, but once Anthony made his decision of where he wanted to go, the Pelicans wouldn’t have had much choice.”
It was around the time when solid reports linking Davis to the Lakers were out for months. But if Kyrie could have convinced both his team and the management, things would have turned out pretty different for multiple teams.
The 2016 Champion then found a way to convince KD to join forces in Brooklyn amidst some disrespect from younger players and misunderstandings with the then-coach Brad Stevens.
“But that’s the way it was going. I think people assumed at first that Durant would stay with Golden State, so Kyrie was courting AD to join him in Boston. It was looking good, but then Anthony and Kyrie had a little bit of a falling out for some reason. I think Kyrie fell more in love with Kevin Durant as opposed to Anthony Davis. Maybe he realized KD was possible.” the executive finished.
How it turned out for Kyrie and AD
Comparing both their situation now, things haven’t been much different for the could-be Celtics duo barring Davis’ first year with the Lakers, which ended up in a championship season.
Injuries have troubled the 2020 champion. Last year, the Purple and Gold team had an early exit due to both AD and LBJ’s continuous struggle to be their complete self.
This season it’s even worse, the Lakers are 27-33 and struggle to keep even the Play-in spot, unlike last year. The 28-year-old is limited to 37 games this season while averaging 23.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 2.3 blocks.
Injuries didn’t allow either the Nets to ever play the superstar duo they acquired in the first season, i.e., 2019-20. In their second season, Nets went one step further and put together with Kai, Durant, and Harden to form the big-3 in the East only to not being able to play all of them in the 2021 Playoffs, due to injuries either to Irving or Harden.
The 29-year-old is averaging 24.1 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game while shooting 45.2 percent from the floor and 36.8 percent from deep this season. But he’s just played 14 games for the team due to his vaccination status and the Nets are just 32-30 as we speak. And Harden is now playing with Joel Embiid.
That Anthony Davis move, had it come true, would have altered everything in the NBA as we see it today.
