Tommy Heinsohn Already a Little Annoyed With Kyrie Irving Iso-Ball, How Long Till He Loses It?

The NBA season is very early, obviously, but it’s gone pretty poorly for the Boston Celtics thus far. They likely lost star acquisition Gordon Hayward for the season with a gruesome leg injury, they’ve started 0-2, and Kyrie Irving had a very poor shooting night (7-25 for 17 points) in the home opener loss against Milwaukee.

Here’s a possession in the fourth quarter where Celtics color commentator Tommy Heinsohn was begging Kyrie to move:

Shortly thereafter, Heinsohn lamented the general lack of ball movement on the Celtics’ offense, without directly pointing the finger at Kyrie.

In the famous eccentric interview Kyrie Irving gave on First Take in September, he talked about how it would be different in Boston from Cleveland (where he was already sixth in the NBA in field goal attempts per game last season) in that he’d be true point guard and not get stuck in iso-ball. “Actually playing point guard, which is very, very much exciting,” he said, via Mass Live. “Getting that thing on the break and allowing Gordon (Hayward) to have the space around him as well, and allowing Al Horford to make plays as a big, and having an offense that’s not necessarily dictated just on me isolating. So I’m excited about that.”

Again: it’s early. There will be nights where Kyrie Irving is throwing it in the ocean and some of his bad shots from last night go in and he looks like the best player on the planet. But I still think these clips are a little bit of a foreshadowing of an epic temper tantrum one night.