Kyrie Irving Called LeBron to Apologize For Not Appreciating His Leadership

After walking some miles – and playing some basketball – in his old teammate’s shoes, Kyrie Irving has come to appreciate the leadership of LeBron James.

Irving, who won a championship with James when they were both on the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been the de facto leader of the Boston Celtics for one and a half seasons now and it has been a rough ride thus far.

Last season, he was hurt and watched from the bench as the team made it all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals. This season, with high expectations of a repeat of last year, the team has struggled mightily.

Losers of three in a row, the Celtics had a big game Tuesday night against the first-place Toronto Raptors. Behind Irving, who had been struggling on the court and ripping into his team off of it, the Celtics were able to beat the Raptors 117-108 with the All-Star guard going for 27 points and dishing out a career-high 18 assists.

Kyrie with yet another dagger three in crunch time, earning himself tonight’s @JetBlue Play of the Game! https://t.co/2GbqR2d4I8 pic.twitter.com/XASoVFUoiU

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 17, 2019

In an extended interview after the game, Irving discussed what he’s learned about leadership and revealed he called James to apologize for not appreciating what he was doing while they were both in Cleveland.

“Obviously, this was a big deal for me, because I had to call [LeBron] and tell him I apologized for being that young player that wanted everything at his fingertips, and I wanted everything at my threshold,” Irving said. “I wanted to be the guy that led us to a championship. I wanted to be the leader. I wanted to be all that, and the responsibility of being the best in the world and leading your team is something that is not meant for many people. [LeBron] was one of those guys who came to Cleveland and tried to show us how to win a championship, and it was hard for him, and sometimes getting the most out of the group is not the easiest thing in the world.”

📹 Kyrie explains why he called LeBron James after finally understood what being a leader is all about pic.twitter.com/oZsXKIMeSq

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 17, 2019

Irving also talked about his own failings as a leader this year.

Kyrie admits he set a poor example by putting his teammates on blast in public (Presented by https://t.co/Av8GdCiYr0) pic.twitter.com/9XQ3iEcH9e

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 17, 2019