Celtics' Kyrie Irving Takes 'Part Responsibility' For Gordon Hayward's Injury

Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving took part responsibility for teammate Gordon Hayward’s injury and admitted he still feels “sick” about it.

Irving and Hayward joined the Celtics prior to the start of the 2017-18 season and were expected to help take the young team to the next level. But the latter’s season ended before it even started after he suffered an ankle injury just five minutes into the first game of the regular season.

Hayward was immediately ruled out for the rest of the campaign despite everyone holding out hope for an earlier return. The Celtics did not let the injury get them down, as they had a strong season and finished as the second seeds in the Eastern Conference.

Irving played a key role in them having a strong regular season, but the former Cleveland Cavaliers star also suffered injury troubles which saw his season cut short in April. He needed to have a minor knee surgery to remove screws inserted in 2015, which meant he could not play the final few games of the regular season and skip the playoffs.

Despite Hayward’s injury being caused by a bad fall during their game against the Cavaliers, Irving has taken part responsibility as it was his pass for the alley-oop. The point guard admitted he was still “sick” over the injury, which was not a pretty sight when it occurred, and more so, due to the rhythm they had built as a team during pre-season training.

“I was pissed for our team and, more or less, for Gordon,” Irving said on the Bill Simmons podcast. “He was just now starting to get a rhythm in preseason. It was just tough.

“I’m the one that threw the pass for the alley-oop, and I was just like holding on to that for a while. I’ll take part of the responsibility but he wasn’t really open — I saw D-Wade (Dwyane Wade) over there and he just came down wrong, and I was like, ‘Ah, f.'”

“I’m still sick about it. Because we had a really good training camp, like a really good training camp,” the Celtics point guard explained. “The pre-season games weren’t even going to be the factor determining how great we were going to be. I knew it from the first day."

Irving and Hayward are expected to return in time for the start of the 2018-19 season in October and despite their absence the Celtics had a strong campaign. Brad Stevens’ team were expected to lose in the first round of the playoffs, but beat the Milwaukee Bucks, the highly fancied Philadelphia 76ers and were just one win away from making the NBA Finals against the Cavaliers.

However, despite leading the best of seven series 2-0, they could not get over the line in Game 7 against the LeBron James-led Cavaliers.