Irving, After Hayward Injury, has Much to Do to Lead the Celtics

The duo were supposed to be a high-octane experiment worth dismantling the team for, but now it’ll have to wait

On the morning of his first game with the Boston Celtics, Kyrie Irving sat at the centre of a scrum of reporters along and refused to talk about what everyonewantedhimtotalkabout,specifically his reasons for demanding a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Well, guys, going forward, I kind of want to put that to rest,” said Irving, who proceeded to do everything he could to avoid putting it to rest.

As this bit of theatre was playing out before the team’s shoot-around Tuesday, Gordon Hayward sat by himself a few feet away. He, too, was a few hours from his Celtics debut, but he was stage right, just beyond the spotlight’s glare. It belonged to Irving in his return to the Cavaliers — and now it will belong to Irving indefinitely.

Laterthatnight,intheCeltics’season opener,againsttheCavaliers,Hayward and Irving spent exactly 5 minutes 15 seconds cohabitating the court as new teammatesbeforeitallcrumbledapart: Haywardgrimacinginagonynearone of the baskets after an alley-oop gone awry, his left leg fixed at a gruesome angle, his future suddenly uncertain.

Hayward, a 27-year-old forward who signedafour-year,$128millioncontract to join the Celtics in July, was eventu- Kyrie Irving in action during Celtic’s loss to Bucks ally wheeled off the floor on a stretcher with a fractured left tibia.

The Celtics seemed primed to challenge the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference this season, and perhaps they still can. But the reality is that so many of their hopes were wrapped up in Hayward, an outstanding shooter who figured to benefit from the attention that Irving draws from defenders. But Hayward’s absence leaves them with depleted depth on the wing.

Itisanobviouspoint,andonethatwas trueevenbeforetheylostHayward,but Irving will have an outsize role in dictating how the Celtics move forward from here. If he was eager to escape LeBron James’s colossal shadow, Irving has that chance now. He did not want it this way. But the rest of the league will be watching regardless.