Kyrie Irving’s debut in New York is Tuesday. His movie debut, “Uncle Drew,” that is. The film premieres Tuesday in Manhattan and is officially…
Kyrie Irving’s debut in New York is Tuesday. His movie debut, “Uncle Drew,” that is. The film premieres Tuesday in Manhattan and is officially released in theaters Friday.
Irving, the West Orange, N. J., superstar who becomes a free agent in 2019, when the Knicks will be in hot pursuit, says he hears recruiting-type comments from Knicks fans when walking the New York streets.
Irving has a huge season ahead with the Celtics, favorites to win the Eastern Conference, and is trying to keep his thoughts centered without drifting much toward next summer. Irving admits it could be one of the big challenges he faces this season.
“I think just hearing the balance, it’s just a ways away, man,” Irving said Monday morning in a movie roundtable with a handful of New York basketball writers. “But [the hype] is already starting. As long as I could just divide the attention up and it just doesn’t infiltrate what I’m focused on during the season then I’m cool with it.”
Irving, who stars in the film about 70-year-old former Rucker Park legends making a comeback, placed the Knicks on his wish list last summer after demanding a trade from the Cavaliers. The trade to the Celtics occurred during the movie’s filming of one of the memorable scenes at a night club.
“All the alerts started going off on everyone’s phone,” Irving said. “The day it happened, the dancing got a little better.”
The Knicks will have reps at the “Uncle Drew” premiere. A source said Frank Ntilikina, Damyean Dotson and Isaiah Hicks, and maybe more, plan to attend.
Irving tried to be careful in his remarks about his future.
“It could be a process,’’ Irving said when asked if he’s looking forward to his first chance at unrestricted free agency.
“Even considering that time, it seems like a long ways away. So, it’s just like — you’ve definitely seen it, observed it, other players have gone through it. You just can’t let anything infiltrate exactly where your focus is. A lot of your attention could be distracted in other areas. And we’ve seen things — our platform now, in terms of what the NBA entails, they could just draw one word and sentences start becoming whole diatribes of what he actually meant.”
Irving could have been referring to his revelation made during All-Star Weekend that he told Kristaps Porzingis he’d like to play with him one day. Irving laughed at dissection of a recent remark he made to Boston writers in which he said his goal is to win a title this season for the Celtics.
“I had somebody dissect me on TV saying, ‘What is he actually saying here?’’’ Irving said. “So I thought that was pretty funny. ‘Kyrie is saying he wants to win a championship, what is he actually saying here?’”
Asked if it was fun having Knicks fans make comments to him, Irving said: “It’s bound to happen. It’s going to happen regardless, whether you like it or not.”
Irving played a Rucker Park game once after his second NBA season with Tyreke Evans, despite his father’s discouragement. Ironically, his father is a former Rucker MVP. The movie wasn’t filmed at Rucker, though, as the producers built a replica. His gray-haired teammates were played by ex-Knick Nate Robinson, Reggie Miller, Chris Webber and Shaquille O’Neal.
“I think it embodies a great niche and a great part of the culture of not just streetball, but you’ve seen a lot of historical legends go through there,’’ Irving said. “It’s 145th Street in New York, and it’s a historical place. Just like watching people going there, watching from the gate, from the stands, kids running outside of the park.
“[The metro area] will always be home to me. I’m from New Jersey — to just be clear. This is where I grew up, man.“
Irving, who missed the playoffs because of an infection in his knee from a prior surgery, said he would be cleared to play in two weeks. He called the last two months “pretty intense,” during a recovery with antibiotics being pumped into his heart intravenously every eight hours. His called his recent training “the real climb to the Mount Everest back to the top.”
A kerfuffle arose when the Cavaliers drafted point guard Collin Sexton and was given Irving’s number.
“The story is probably going to the number,” Irving said. “But I’m more excited about who [Sexton] is as a player in the league. The number thing is like, just chalk that up to the game. It’s cool. It’s no hard feelings from my end. He just has to start at the chopping block just like everyone else did. So I’m excited for him.”
It’s unclear if he made a misstep, but Irving may have left LeBron James off when asked to put together his perfect team at age 70. Irving said he wanted shooters, listing “KD, Steph, James.” He was referring to Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and James Harden.
