Reggie Miller explains how Kyrie Irving learned about trade to Celtics
The pickup games on the set of Kyrie Irving’s “Uncle Drew” movie don’t compare to the battles that took place on the set of the Warner Bros. studio lot where Michael Jordan’s “Space Jam” was filmed. However, at least the anecdotes are stronger. One story has emerged from the film that occurred on the day Irving was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics.
The film stars Irving, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, Nate Robinson and Lisa Leslie as septuagenarians who assemble to presumably play in one final Rucker Park tournament.
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At his introductory press conference in September, Irving gave a relatively vague answer when asked how he was informed the Celtics trade had gone through.
“I took a moment outside on the side of the street in Atlanta to watch the cars pass. I took in that moment, because it really meant something,” Irving said. “It was the start of something new, and I knew I was going to come in contact with some other great individuals, and we were going to go after something special.”
During an NBA on TNT media call, Miller delivered the more intimate details surrounding the exact moment.
According to Miller, a group of them were preparing to film a scene for the “Uncle Drew” movie when their attention was pulled elsewhere.
“We were in this small, hot, cramped van getting ready to shoot a scene and all of our phones ding at the same time, except for Kyrie,” Miller said. “He didn’t have his phone.”
After Webber, Miller and Robinson realized what happened, they briefly pondered the best way to break the news to Irving and settled on blurting it out.
“And we’re looking at one other like, ‘Should we tell him?'” Miller said. “Obviously, we had to tell him because he was, like, right in front of us, so we all showed him the phone.”
From the sound of it, Irving’s reaction was probably more subdued than Isaiah Thomas’ was.
“His expression was funny,” Miller said. “He was like, ‘Huh? Let’s do this.’ And that’s how we all found out that he had been traded to the Celtics.”
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