Kyrie Irving was booed heavily in his postseason return to Boston, the city in which he spent two seasons before signing with Brooklyn – and then heckled some more throughout the Nets' 125-119 loss to the Celtics.
Irving’s hate/hate relationship with Boston has been well-documented all season, from his burning of sage upon the Nets’ preseason trip to Beantown in December, to his comments before Game 3 where he intimated past racist treatment in the city.
It seemed to stay strictly basketball, but the Beantown faithful weren’t shy with one word: Boo. Kyrie was booed when he came out for warmups, again when he was introduced, and yet again when he first touched the ball.
TD Garden cheered when he missed a shot in the opening minute, and then serenaded with a chant of “Kyrie sucks” roughly 90 seconds into the game. And, later, as an Irving foul on Marcus Smart in the third quarter was reviewed for flagrancy, well, they turned to a four-letter word instead.
Kyrie’s racism comments were strongly rebuked by ex-Celtic Kendrick Perkins, who said he never dealt with that in Boston and that ‘everything is extra with Kyrie’ on the Celtics’ post-game show. Current Celtics Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson seemed to back Irving’s stance, which has been shared by a lot of athletes who have visited Boston (notably Adam Jones speaking about Fenway Park), but injured Celtic Jaylen Brown took a different route, calling out Kyrie for framing it around a playoff game.
Perhaps, Boston fans may take issue with the mercurial Nets guard because, after saying “if you all will have me, I’d love to re-sign here” at the end of the 2019-20 season, Irving instead bolted for Brooklyn to join Kevin Durant and others.
On the actual floor, Irving struggled early, with just eight points in his first 30 minutes before a pair of three-pointers down the stretch helped him finish with 16 points in 41 minutes - and come Game 4, TD Garden's capacity will increase heavily, as the 25 percent in attendance for Friday's game will bump up to near 100 percent.
Insult to injury? Jayson Tatum finished with 50, eclipsing LeBron James' 49 in a Game 4 of the 2014 Eastern Conference semifinals as the most points against the Nets in a playoff game.
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch