I apologize if there is "another term" or phrase for this, but I'm referring to the "draw/lure" Irving brings all around the league and media (including national outlets) along with the praise he gets from other superstar players.
Ever since the trade was made, think about it:
1. Kyrie makes an appeareance on First Take (did Isaiah ever make one, even after the season he put up last year. Nope. His most recent appeareance was in 2014-2015 Finals).
2. ESPN ranks Boston as most likely to make Finals out of East (NOT Cleveland). Also puts Boston now as #2 as "best future team" behind Golden State.
3. Quite a few talk shows/programs (like The Herd, Undisputed, Speak For Yourself, SC6, The Jump, ESPN, etc.) who used to ALWAYS doubt the Celtics and think they were nothing more than "a bunch of rag tag overachievers" are suddenly "buying into the team" and intrigued by them. Think they can do a lot especially in the future (even Banner 18 within 2-3 years).
4. Facebook and Twitter simply have A LOT more posts on "Irving the Celtics Player" these days as opposed to Isaiah Thomas.
5. I don't mean to create controversy when I say this, but do you think Hayward is happier to play with Irving more than Thomas. Now yes, Hayward said Isaiah is the ONLY reason he came here (which is true), but it seems like Hayward and Irving have some history together themselves (recruiting also before LBJ re-joined CLE) and Hayward "seems" more psyched to play alongside Irving than Thomas... (Again, JUST A GUESS here).
So to sum it up, when we had Isaiah, Crowder, etc. still on the team, we were a GREAT team. Made the ECF, still had all the draft picks coming up, life was fantastic. But the national media STILL never gave them credit and ALWAYS doubted them. Now we have Irving and suddenly everyone is believing in this team going forward... (Even when we signed Hayward, people still doubted our potential with Thomas as our PG still)
Man I feel for "The Little Guy". But Kyrie's influence (hopefully) will help us attract future ring-chasing FA's and trade targets (who hopefully love Irving).
Anyone else notice this though?