Kyrie Irving signs a basketball for a fan during a training camp for USA Basketball, Thursday, July 26, 2018, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
LAS VEGAS — Kyrie Irving isn’t in a position where he could play with USA Basketball this week at its minicamp.
He made the trip to Las Vegas anyway.
The way Irving sees it, if USA Basketball calls, you answer. So he was in the gym Thursday for the start of the two-day camp, watching and interacting with guys but not partaking in the on-court action.
And he insisted that when the Boston Celtics start training camp in about two months, he will be fully ready to go.
“Easily. Easily. Easily,” Irving said. “It’s just the summertime. This is probably one of the first summers in my last seven years where I’ve actually had time to kind of develop and work on things that I want to improve on.”
Irving’s first season with the Celtics ended in mid-March with a knee issue that required surgery. The Celtics went to the Eastern Conference finals even without him and Gordon Hayward (who missed all but the first five minutes of the season because of injury) anyway.
And now with LeBron James now out of the East — he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, meaning his eight-year run of being on the team that wins the East is ending — Boston figures to be a popular pick to reach the NBA Finals next season.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to be battling anyway,” Irving said. “We haven’t started. Everyone’s 0-0 right now. The expectations, the power rankings, all that other good stuff that the media loves doing, it’s all part of the game. Obviously there’s some expectations that we have to meet individually and then as a group.”
Irving was the third-leading scorer for the U.S. at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, starting all eight games and averaging 11.4 points. The U.S. went 8-0 in Rio on the way to gold.