Kyrie Irving gets real on hatred towards Celtics fans

Kyrie Irving has always been a bit of an instigator. Self-protrait as a free-thinker, he has never hesitated to push people’s buttons, up to the point where his market in the NBA was quite slim.

He’s been at his best and way more mature now with the Dallas Mavericks, leaving all the off-court issues behind him. However, he does have a history with the Boston Celtics, and fans cannot wait to see how he’ll react at the TD Garden.

With that in mind, the former NBA champion looked back on the back-and-forths he’s had with Celtics fans. And while they have a reputation for being, harsh, sort of speak, he acknowledged that he wasn’t at his best either.

Kyrie Irving Reflects On His Beef With Celtics Fans

“I will say last time in Boston, I don’t think that was the best — not this regular season, but when we played in the playoffs and everyone saw me flip off the birds and kind of lose my sh*t a little bit — that wasn’t a great reflection of who I am and how I like to compete on a high level,” Irving said. “It wasn’t a great reflection on my end towards the next generation on what it means to control your emotions in that type of environment, no matter what people are yelling at you.”

Kyrie Irving — Getty Images

Even though he’s clearly not liked there, Irving believes Celtics fans still appreciate good basketball, so he’s looking forward to putting on a show and being at his best there:

“I’m built for these moments, to be able to handle circumstances like that, and I’ve been able to grow since then. So of course it’s going to be a hectic environment, but I’m looking forward to it and I see it as a healthy relationship that I have with the fans. I almost think about ‘Gladiator,’ just winning the crowd over. It is good to hear the TD Garden silent when you’re playing well. They still respect great basketball,” he said.

It’s Just Basketball, Says Kyrie

Even so, Kyrie isn’t all that worried about playing in that hostile environment anymore. He believes this is just competition, and there are more important things in life:

“I think I’m better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it’s going to be like,” Irving said. “We call it animosity, we call it hate, we call it, ‘It’s going to be hell in Boston.’ I mean, there are real, live circumstances going on in the world that are bigger than the basketball, kind of the competitive side of things and answering those questions.”

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It’s just basketball, indeed. Even so, this will most likely be the biggest storyline of the series, and it’ll be interesting to see how both parties deal with it. Hopefully, they’ll keep it classy.