When Kyrie Irving left the Boston Celtics, it enraged many fans. After all, he was a Celtics star! However, Irving gave them his reasons. And Irving’s former teammate Jayson Tatum recently revealed his feeling about the same.

Kyrie Irving gets validation from rookie teammate about leaving the Celtics

Jayson Tatum was recently a guest on the quarantined edition of the All the Smoke podcast to discuss his time at Duke, his playoff runs with the Celtics and his poster dunk on LeBron. He revealed some of his favorite stories about Kobe and MJ. And also opened up about his relationship with Irving and his thoughts about him leaving.

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A lot of Celtics fans are still enraged that Irving left the Celtics to go to the Brooklyn Nets. There were actual chants of “Kyrie sucks” coming from such fans. Irving, however, wasn’t about to go without clearing the air.

According to Irving, he put his mental health before what fans wanted. He laid out his side on social media.

Thankfully, his former teammates aren’t as hung up as the fans. Based on what Tatum told Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, he is actually completely supportive of Irving’s decision. Rather, he felt the former Boston point guard deserved it.

“His decision to go to Brooklyn, obviously a lot of people were mad and things like that, but us as basketball players, we understand once you get to a certain level and a certain point in your career, you’ve earned the right to make the decision on what makes you happy and what you want to do,” Tatum said.

“So I was happy for him. He wanted to go back home and be closer to his family. I think everybody should have that opportunity.”

Tatum also had a lot of praise for the 28-year-old Nets player. “People might think he crazy, but Ky got? He got game. He (is) one of the most skilled basketball players ever. Just some of the things he did with the ball was just like mind-boggling to me and the way he was able to finish.

“He’s special. He (is) one of the best players I was able to see and play with.”

Kyrie Irving averaged 23.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.9 assists in his last season with the Celtics. He made the All-NBA Second Team, however, he wasn’t able to lead Boston on a deep post-season run. He also had a bumpy relationship with the Beantown head coach Brad Stevens.

Irving ended up signing a four-year deal with the Brooklyn Nets, making him one of the most hated athletes in Boston now.