BOSTON — The fans who used to cheer for Kyrie Irving plastered posters on the streets of Boston calling him a coward. Inside TD Garden on Wednesday night it was far worse, as they showered his new Nets teammates with chants of “Kyrie sucks!” even t🔴hough Ir❀ving himself was hundreds of miles away.
Absent, but not oblivious. And eventually Irving — at home rehabbing a right shoulder impingement that cost him a seve♛nth straight game — couldn’t take any more, pu📖shing back on social media.
“It happens all the time and Tonight just shows how Sports/Entertainment will always be ignorant and obtrusive,” Irving wrote in a lengtꦚhy Instagram post. “It’s one big SHOW that means very l♚ittle in the real world.”
Irving, who left Boston for Brooklyn in free agency, is day-to-day and hasn’t been ruled out for Friday🐟’s rematch at Barclays Center. But robꦰbed of their chance to boo Irving properly, Celtics fans still put up posters portraying him as the Cowardly Lion, wore shirts asking, “Where’s Kyrie?” and cursed him all evening.
“It’s about doing it for the fans and organization that love you so much? Think again, it’s a GAME, and it’s promoted as a Fandom experience for ticket buyers and viewers at home, while defacing who people truly are as PEOPLE,” Irving wrote on Instagram after the Nets’ 121-110 loss.
Even before the show of venom, Celtics coach Brad Stevens wasn’t a fan of all that outsized negative attention thrown at Irving, who is g🧜etting closer to a return.
“That’s one of the ꧃things that, unfortunately,♑ when you’re really, really good at something, the level of scrutiny is even higher,” Stevens said. “He’s one of the best players in the NBA. The level of scrutiny is unfair, but it comes with the territory of all those guys. That’s why it’s so important that we constantly remind ourselves of how good they are.
“The ♍way people talked about his time here … he was second team all-NBA last year. He was ridiculous the year before. He’s a heck of a player. He gets to choose where he wants to play, he gets to go home. That’s something we all respect. We wish him nothing but health and happiness. This is the world we live in. I don’t particularly like it … but we’ve got to react to something, and unfortunately we’re very reactionary.”
Oh, they reacted. They have been reacting since Irvingღꦏ left.
The All-Star guard had a stellar first season in Boston and said he hoped to stay. But after being shaken by the death of his grandfather, ꦡhe admits he failed to lead them during a tumultuous second campaign.
Boston general manager Danny Ainge said Tuesday on♋ ESPN that the blame lies with him. And Stevens said Wednesday the failure was team-wide, although the buck stops with him as coach, not with Irving.
“We’ve said many times that whatever we didn’t achieve that we wanted to achieve as a team is on the t๊eam. It’s not for one person,” Stevens said. “I really enjoyed Kyrie and I wish him nothing but the best. Everybody that was on that team last year will be better because of that experience.
“Incredi🎃ble player. We won a ton of games when he was here. We didn’t get to where we ultimately wanted to go last ye🎐ar, and that leaves a sour taste in everybody’s mouth that was a part of that team. … I’ve said many times if you’re the one that has to put it all together and the team’s not as good, that’s on me.”
But that didn’t stem the hate many Celtics fans spewed at Irving, and it likely won’t stop them in the future. Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said it might just be part and parcel of Irving✱’s stardom.
“I think it’s the play, how dynamic he is,” At🅷kinson said. “I see it with LeBron [James], all the greats, we just pay more attention. Fans do, press does: It’s part of🌜 the business.”