Kyrie Irving Found Out About Trade To Celtics While On Set Of Uncle Drew Movie
BOSTON (CBS) -- Celtics fans will always remember where they were when they heard about the team's blockbuster trade for Kyrie Irving over the summer.
Chances are they let out a euphoric shout or 10 and followed it up with several fist pumps. Many of Irving's new teammates have interesting stories as well, as they were left scrambling as they tried to figure out if they were part of the package that Boston sent to Cleveland.
Irving himself has an interesting tale of the moment he found out he was heading to the Celtics. He was surrounded by former NBA stars, and dressed up like an old man.
The star guard was on the set of his "Uncle Drew" movie, a character made famous in a series of Pepsi commercials. NBA analyst and Hall of Fame player Reggie Miller is in the movie with Irving, and recently discussed how he and the rest of the cast had to break the news to Irving, who did not have his phone on him when the trade went down.
"We're on this small van getting ready to shoot a scene and all of our phones ding at the same time, except for Kyrie's. He didn't have his phone," explained Miller. "And we looked at our phones, and C-Webb, he looked at us like, 'Kyrie Irving's been traded to Boston, right?' And we're looking at one another like, 'Should we tell him?'
"Obviously we had to tell him because he was like right in front of us. So we all showed him the phone," Miller continued. "It was so funny, his expression. He looked at it and was like, 'Huh. OK, let's do this.' And that's how we all found out that he had been traded to the Boston Celtics."
Irving's movie is slated to come out next summer. He'll make his Celtics debut Tuesday night when Boston visits the Cleveland Cavaliers to open the 2017-18 NBA season.