Shannon Sharpe says Kyrie Irving isn’t wrong to reference Boston’s racist history, but is only bringing it up because he failed with the Celtics
During FS1’s “Undisputed” Wednesday, the NFL Hall of Fame tight end took issue with Irving’s contradictory stance about wanting to keep the conversation to basketball, while saying he hopes Celtics fans don’t taunt him with racial barbs.
“You want it to be about basketball, but you bring up something other than basketball,” Sharpe said. “Let’s be all the way 100: Kyrie’s two years in Boston were a failure. That’s what this is about.”
When Irving was asked Tuesday about playing in front of fans at the TD Garden for the first time since leaving Boston, he said he hopes the environment isn’t racially hostile. “Hopefully we can just keep it strictly to basketball, you know, there’s no belligerence or any racism going on, subtle racism, and people yelling s–t from the crowd,” he said following Brooklyn’s 130-108 blowout Game 2 victory.
Later, Irving equivocated when asked if he’s experienced any issues in the city. “I’m not the only one that could attest to this,” he said. “But it’s just… you know. ... It is what it is. The whole world knows it.”
Back in March 2019, Irving said he’s never experienced racism in Boston, but sides with Black athletes who have shared their truths.
Sharpe expressed a similar sentiment.
“He’s not lying,” Sharpe said. “People in Boston should be upset with your behavior, because people that actually played there talk about it, and visiting fans talk about it. So you need to correct your behavior. You can yell and scream without being bigoted.”
It’s hard to argue with that. Irving is relaying a commonly expressed fear among Black athletes. The history of Boston sports fans engaging in racist taunts is shamefully long.
But as Sharpe also said, Irving has now fully taken the focus off basketball. Heading into Friday's Game 3, Irving words will dominate the conversation.
Maybe that was his true motive all along.
“Kyrie, if you just want to keep it to basketball, you should’ve kept it to basketball,” Sharpe said. “I just don’t like the fact that he wanted to keep it something, and he made it something else.”