Kyrie Irving wasn’t on the Celtics’ bench for their season-ending loss to the Cavs in Game 7 of the East finals due to a recent surgery for a deviated septum, according to Celtics president Danny Ainge.
“Kyrie had a deviated septum, had some surgery on that, and so I don’t think he wanted to be seen,” Ainge said during Monday’s exit interview, joking, “He’s a really good-looking guy. He can’t ruin his movie career.”
From ESPN’s report:
Irving’s agent, Jeff Wechsler, told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan that the point guard wanted to attend the game but couldn’t fly because of the surgery.
“It was a residual from the facial fracture he had earlier in the season,” Wechsler said, referring to the injury Irving suffered in November. “He had the knee surgery, and now he’s taken care of this sinus surgery, so he will be all set going forward.”
Also during Monday’s interviews, Terry Rozier, who filled in admirably for Irving during Boston’s run to the Eastern Conference finals, talked about his offseason and how he’s approaching the 2018-19 season.
“He’s the starter. He’s our starting point guard,” said Rozier, who averaged . “I had a lot of fun leading these guys this year when I had to step up, next year it will play itself out the right way.”
Ainge also touched on the progress of forward Gordon Hayward, who hasn’t played since dislocating his left ankle in the first game of the season.
“Gordon is progressing well,” Ainge said. “He’s on the court now, finally doing a little bit of competition, like just one-on-one. And he’ll progress along that line slowly. We think that he’ll be playing basketball in the next couple months.”