Kevin McNamara: Time is now for Kyrie and the Celtics

The Boston Celtics, and especially Kyrie Irving, are on the clock.

The NBA’s playoffs begin Sunday for the Celtics and if you listen to the front office, the coaching staff and the players — and especially Irving — you’re about to see something special. After a 49-win season that only secured the Celts the title as the league’s biggest under-achievers, the script is about to change.

It had better.

If Irving thought the spotlight [...]

The Boston Celtics, and especially Kyrie Irving, are on the clock.

The NBA’s playoffs begin Sunday for the Celtics and if you listen to the front office, the coaching staff and the players — and especially Irving — you’re about to see something special. After a 49-win season that only secured the Celts the title as the league’s biggest under-achievers, the script is about to change.

It had better.

If Irving thought the spotlight and responsibility of leading a tradition-filled franchise like the Celtics became a bit too much to bear in December and February, just wait until this upcoming series against the Indiana Pacers. And then, hopefully, a matchup with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

“I’m ready to get started,” Irving said last week. “Stats go out the window, everything else in terms of what has transpired throughout the regular season goes out the window. Everything is about the true essence of basketball, nothing else about the drama or extra-curricular stuff. It’s just a focus on the game and talking about basketball instead of sensationalism.”

You have to love Kyrie. First of all let’s give it up to the wonderful talents of the 27-year old star. He’s the first Celtic to average at least 23 points (23.8), six assists ( 6.9) and five rebounds (5.0) since Larry Bird in 1990. When he packages his dreamy ballhandling ability with those scoring and passing skills, he’s as explosive as anyone in basketball.

Kyrie’s skills are unquestioned. So is his ability to elevate the “drama” and “sensationalism” that he spoke with scorn about. While he didn’t stick around at One-and-Done Duke University long enough to major in anything, Kyrie knows drama. Heck, he’s a shoe-in All-Pro in drama.

In a pre-playoff interview last week with what can only be described as a friendly group of questioners, Kyrie did what Kyrie too often does. He talked himself into a lather, with no provocation. He correctly said he’s “dedicated myself to this since I was 16 years old” and then rambled off into a revealing tangent where he basically said he began his pro career hunting stats and wins and looking for “validation” that came without fulfillment.

He said this Celtics season, one where he’s clearly upset the team’s chemistry despite being the very best player, was filled with “a lot of bull (crap). A lot of ups and downs that could have been handled better from a professional standpoint. I’m talking about me personally, not our team.”

That’s when Kyrie crossed over into a larger psychological breakdown when all the media was really looking for was a breakdown of the pesky Pacers.

“In my career the biggest mistake since I’ve come into this is trying to get validation for stats or other things that really don’t have any validation in my life,” he said. “Allowing all this to bother me, all you guys, all the questions and everything that comes with it is so irrelevant to what I do on the court and how hard I work every single day. That’s been the biggest lesson that I’ve learned, the way I want to treat my career going forward rather than thinking about the last eight years of what I thought I was struggling with.”

Kyrie ended his remarks with an abrupt exit stage left, after saying “I’m fighting from a deeper place of a lot of my descendants that have come before me. None of this stuff, from the cameras to the system really matters.”

Say what?

The Celtics have learned that this is what comes with having Kyrie Irving on your team. He’s a wonderful player, one capable of leading you deep into the playoffs. He averaged 25.2 points over 21 playoff games running with LeBron James and the Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA Championship. He tossed in 25.9 points to go along with 5.3 assists a year later when the Cavs were beaten in the Finals by the Warriors.

So while we know the guy can really play when the lights are brightest we also know he can’t avoid the drama. The overriding theme hanging over the season — and now this playoff run — is Kyrie’s pending free agency. After teasing Celtic season-ticket holders back in October with a meaningless promise (“I plan on re-signing here next year”) to commit to the team, Kyrie has signed nothing and said little about his future plans. Some believe he will sign with the Celts, and then help convince Anthony Davis to do the same after a summer trade. Others have Kyrie Super Teamming it and joining Kevin Durant and Zion Williamson with the Knicks.

Who knows. That’s an act for another day, just another chapter in the personnel musical chairs that make the NBA go round.

First it’s time to see just what Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward can do when the games mean everything. Is Al Horford ready for another steady playoff run? Can Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier summon some of the heroics they flashed last April and May?

Answers to those questions, and more, are about to come. The Celtics are on the clock.