Although Kyrie Irving maintains that he has no regrets about requesting a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Boston Celtics guard believes he needed to make last month's infamous phone call to LeBron James in order to put that chapter of his life behind him.
"Apologizing, that was a step for me just to move forward in my life," Irving told ESPN's Rachel Nichols.
"It takes a very, very strong individual to replay a lot of the experiences that you've had," he said. "A lot of anger that you had built up, where you didn't address the situation and you allowed it to fester, and then it was just combustion. It came out, and then you realized, 'Hey, I didn't have to deal with that the same way I dealt with that (in the past). I didn't have to go about it the same way."
The six-time All-Star spoke with James after launching into a tirade against his younger teammates following a January loss to the Orlando Magic amid a frustrating Celtics season. Irving apologized to LeBron for not properly comprehending the role of a veteran leader when he was a young player in Cleveland.
Irving is averaging 23.6 points per contest on 49.8 percent shooting in his second season in Boston. The 26-year-old is expected to opt out of his contract this summer to become a free agent and has been linked to a move to the New York Knicks.
