Kyrie Irving Is OUT for the Season; What Does This Really Mean?

Breaking devastating news: It has been announced that Celtics guard Kyrie Irving will miss the remainder of the season after left knee surgery:

This unofficially also ends the Boston Celtics season as soon as the playoffs begin.

What does this injury mean?

Injuries have cost the Celtics a trip to the NBA Finals

Gordon Hayward’s injury cost the Celtics the first seed, now Irving’s injury has cost them their season. The East is as wide open as ever this season, if both Hayward and Irving were healthy they may just be the favorites to come out of the East.

LeBron James’ path just got easier

Now that the Celtics are a virtual walkover, LeBron James’ path to the Finals may be absent of a single superstar. It is still unclear if Joel Embiid will even be ready for the playoffs for the first round where the Cavs will likely meet them. Why would he ever leave the East?!?

This is why the NBA seeding needs to be 1-16

The Eastern Conference was way below average yesterday, now the playoffs in the East become irrelevant again until the ECF. The chances have now increased immensely that it will be the Raptors and Cavs, before that, there is a lot of average. This should end the current East-West seeding.

Kyrie Irving in injury prone

There is no way around it, Kyrie Irving is not a durable player. He was hurt at Duke, was hurt before LeBron got to Cleveland and was hurt the first time Cleveland went up against Golden State in the Finals. Irving is a great player when healthy, but if he is a team’s long-term face of the franchise, they are in trouble.