Robb: Kyrie Irving offers an encouraging tone after overdue mea culpa

Kyrie Irving has had his sights set on the playoffs for months now, a not-so-surprising mentality for a veteran who has already worked his way through three trips to the NBA Finals in Cleveland. After being a part of the most disappointing regular season of the Brad Stevens era, that page can now be officially turned. All of those struggles won’t matter if the Celtics play up to their expectations in the postseason, a scenario that Irving is excited for one year after having to watch a deep playoff run from the sidelines.

“It's been a long time trying to get back to this point,” he said. "It's been a year in my career where I've learned a lot about my body. Over the last year, getting two knee surgeries and a nose surgery. Really setting goals for myself and I just have a genuine love for the game and just want to be back to this point, playing at the highest level.

“Stats go out the window, everything else in terms of what has happened and transpired throughout the regular season goes out the window. It's just like everything is about the true essence of basketball. Nothing else about the drama or extracurricular stuff. I'm excited to be focused on the game and actually talk about basketball instead of sensationalism. I'm just happy about that.”

Before moving forward, Irving was given an opportunity at practice Wednesday to reflect upon the grind of the underwhelming Celtics 82-game regular season. On paper, Irving had the best season of his career on a number of fronts, setting personal highs in rebounds, assists, field goal percentage and steals. Behind the scenes though, there’s no question that Irving made life difficult for the franchise and his teammates on several occasions. Whether it was showing up his teammates on the floor (Orlando), calling his future into question or dividing in the locker room (calling out ‘the young guys’), Irving fell short on several occasions of being the leader he talked about wanting to be.

While he failed to address those specific missteps today, there was no denying he was issuing a bit of a mea culpa when asked about the season. In a refreshing change of pace, he pointed the finger at himself instead of others.

“A lot of bullshit, a lot of ups and downs that could have been handled better from a professional standpoint, personal,” Irving said. “And I’m talking about me personally. I’m not talking about our team. And it’s just—I had a lot of questions, a lot of things that weren’t being answered straight up about what it takes to be a great professional in this league. I think the frame of that is just outdated in terms of what you have to be every single day.

"It’s not that hard, you know what I mean? I think the media and all the stuff that comes with it, I think that it’s an exciting part of that that you’ve got to be aware of. But the real part is literally what I used to wake up every single morning to do, and that’s to put a ball in the hoop and be really great at it.”

Irving was asked to elaborate about the particular ‘questions’ he was referring to and he took a meandering direction in his response.

“I would say just goals that I had, questions of what I was capable of doing,” he said. “I’ve always had the answers and I just looked in the wrong places and I think that, for my career, has been the biggest mistake since I came into this is trying to get validation for stats or other things that really don’t have any validation in my life, and allowing this to bother me.

“All you guys, and all the questions, everything that comes with it is just so irrelevant to what I do on the court and how hard I work every single day. So that’s been the biggest lesson I’ve learned is the way I want to treat my career going forward rather than thinking about the last eight years of what I’ve struggled with or thought I was struggling with. I’m fighting from a deeper place of a lot of my ancestors, a lot of my descendants that have come before me and none of this stuff, from the cameras to the system, really matters. We all belong to that system and you guys ask the questions for a system as well, so, yeah.”

What exactly Irving is trying to say in that last response is anyone’s guess. He is a smart player but can be tough to follow at times when he goes on tangents. That part of the response does not matter though.  Instead, the accountability he is attempting is actually a big step for him. He’s pulled this team down at times with his attitude and criticism off the floor and he’s rarely stepped up to the plate to acknowledge any kind of responsibility. He’s talked all year long about wanting more of a team-focus but he’s actually talking like a bit of a leader now as the C's have started to find an identity for themselves in the last couple weeks. He even tried to deflect some attention from himself towards the team when asked about the prospect of the Big 3 of him Horford, and Hayward coming together for the first time in the postseason.

“I've always hated the whole title driven idea of separating the most talented guys on the team and calling them 'the Big 3' and they are all relied on and depended on,” Irving said “That recipe has never worked for us in terms of just being realistic of just how great we are as a team, made up of collective individuals.

“We all really bring something special to the table out there and in any moment of the game, it could change. We all have that impact in our DNA. I always think about us collectively just being on the right page going into the playoffs and just being successful with the minutes that we all get. It's just about the impact. It's not so much about putting points on the ball or how many steals or how many stats or anything like that. It's just about playing basketball, having fun, cheering on your teammates and doing great things.”

The change in tone is important as the postseason approaches and everyone’s win totals are set back to zero. With the uphill climb that this team will face to even get out of the East playoffs, they are going to need the right mentality from everyone involved, from top to bottom. There is plenty riding on the future of this franchise over the next two months and for one of the first times in 2019, Irving’s heart and head appear to be in the right place as the journey begins. Whether or not it sustains is the bigger question.

He can’t undo any of the collateral damage from the last six months, but no one is going to remember it if he leads the way through a top-half of the East. Wednesday was a baby step on that front, but it was still a move in the right direction.