A big story that's unfolding in the NBA Finals is Kyrie Irving getting his revenge against the Boston Celtics. The master of the handle was a key star that Brad Stevens had to help develop the duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. But, these two would eventually rise to stardom while Irving hopped to the Brooklyn Nets before finding himself with the Dallas Mavericks.
Celtics crowd: too hot to handle?
Kyrie Irving had to go back to the home of the Celtics and was greeted with a lot of jeers for Games 1 and 2. The Mavericks guard has a long history with this crowd. It started off when he promised to re-sign with them but did not follow through with his plan. Then, he stomped on Lucky at the center of the Celtics' court which enraged a lot of the city's faithful.
While the Mavericks guard has claimed that he has matured past the beef with Celtics fans, his performances and actions say otherwise. He was seen bantering with them before heading into the dugout after Game 2. This attitude drew some flak from ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, and Brian Windhorst, via The Hoop Collective.
He handled it as bad as badly as humanly possible in the first two games, he was terrible on the court, he psyched up the crowd after the first game for absolutely no reason, gave them all the more reason to yell at him. A guy who never is demonstrative on the court was going at fans on the court during the game in Game 2 when he hit a couple shots to start the game.
Tim McMahon made the rest of his crew agree. Tim Bontemps even broke down how the Mavericks have not been getting the best production out of Irving. This is most especially true during their first two games in the NBA Finals.
Okay sure that's fair he did, he handled it as bad as you reason could have expected him to from an on court perspective. Sure I mean Kyrie going 13 for 37 from the field and 0 for eight from three is about as bad as you could expect him to shoot the ball.
But, McMahon then gave credit where it was due. He thought the Mavericks guard could have done worse in responding to the Celtics faithful. This was considering that he heard a lot of ‘Kyrie sucks!' chants.
His middle finger stayed in the holster. That's progress.
Kyrie Irving's history with the Celtics before going to the Mavericks
TD Garden is not at all a new hostile environment for Irving. He went there a lot during his Cleveland Cavaliers stint. Irving even had some battles with the Celtics while LeBron James was still his teammate. But, he was hated the most after his promise in front of the home crowd and his actions after moving on from the Celtics.
Since then, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have taken over the Celtics. It paid dividends because he has led them to 14 wins in 22 meetings against Irving's teams. The Celtics have the opportunity to make that 15 wins in 23 games if they succeed in closing this NBA Finals series out in Game 5. What makes it more sweet is that their fans will see the Mavericks star bow his head down while they hold the Larry O'Brien trophy.
Follow Us
Subscribe