Kyrie Irving’s most disrespectful gestures to Celtics fans, from middle-finger incident and stomping on Boston logo to Nets U-turn
On Thursday night, Kyrie Irving will face off against his former team in the NBA Finals.
The mercurial Dallas Mavericks guard has replicated his form of old during the 2024 postseason, and for the first time in a while looks like the unstoppable offensive weapon who was once LeBron James' running mate in Cleveland.
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Dallas takes on Eastern Conference champions Boston in this year's NBA Finals with Game 1 taking place in TD Garden - a place Irving used to call home.
Irving was involved in a blockbuster trade to the Celtics in 2017 and was supposed to deliver the franchise its first title since the 'Big Four's' triumph in 2008.
Instead, his two-year stint with the Cs was mired in controversy and ended with him becoming public enemy number one after jumping ship to the new-look Brooklyn Nets after the 2018-19 season.
In truth, though, Kyrie drew the ire of Celtics fans long before his eventual departure.
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At the 2019 NBA All-Star Game, he was spotted deep in conversation with then-Warriors forward Kevin Durant, fuelling speculation the pair were planning to team up.
Irving eventually got Celtics' fans' hopes up by stating his desire to re-sign with the team.
Shortly after, he did exactly what everyone thought he'd do and left Massachusetts to link up with Durant on the Nets.
The Nets and Celtics would square off in several emotionally charged matchups during Kyrie's roller-coaster time in New York.
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They met in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs with Games 3 and 4 in Boston.
Race was one of the many hot button issues that dominated the discourse in the build up to both those games.
Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving increases his bad blood with Boston fans by stepping on the Celtics logo
"I am just looking forward to competing with my teammates and hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball; there's no belligerence or racism going on -- subtle racism," Irving said. "People yelling s--- from the crowd, but even if it is, it's part of the nature of the game and we're just going to focus on what we can control."
Asked whether he had ever had racist comments made toward him while in TD Garden, Irving said that he "was not the only one that can attest to this" and shrugged his hands.
Game 4 of that series would turn out to be a controversial one.
As the teams left the court, Irving appeared to stomp and wipe his foot on the face of the Celtics' logo, known as Lucky the Leprechaun.
Celtics legends, including Kevin Garnett, called Kyrie out for the disrespectful gesture - one that led to ugly scenes inside Boston's home arena.
One fan - who was later arrested and charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon - threw a bottle of water at Irving as he left the court.
"It's unfortunate that sports has come to a lot of this kind of crossroads where you're seeing a lot of old ways come up," Irving told reporters.
"It's been that way in history in terms of entertainment, performers and sports for a long period of time, just underlying racism and just treating people like they're in a human zoo.
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"Throwing stuff at people and saying things. It's a certain point where it gets to be too much. I called it out, I just wanted to keep it strictly basketball. "
Fast forward to the 2022 postseason and Kyrie's Nets faced the Celtics once again.
The TD Garden crowd rained down chants of "F*** you Kyrie" throughout Game 1 and Irving more than bit on the provocation, giving out the middle finger at least twice during the Celtics' 115-114 win.
Before an inbounds pass, Irving flashed both middle fingers to the crowd behind his head during the stoppage in play.
Irving scored a team-high 39 points in the game.
But when one Celtics fan yelled 'Kyrie, you suck' as the Nets guard walked to the locker room, Irving snapped back, saying, "suck my d***, b****".
"When people start yelling 'p****' or 'b****' and 'f*** you' and all this stuff, there's only but so much you take as a competitor," Irving said.
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"We’re the ones expected to be docile and be humble, take a humble approach, f*** that, it’s the playoffs. This is what it is … So if somebody’s going to call me out on my name, I’m gonna look at them straight in the eye and see if they really ‘bout it. Most of the time they’re not."
A lot has happened between Kyrie and the Celtics in a relatively short space of time.
Game 1 of this year's Finals will reveal whether it's water under the bridge or still a major sore point for Celtics fans.
For the new, mature Kyrie, though, things are a lot different.
Kyrie 2.0 is the calm veteran/closer for a relatively inexperienced Mavs team with one generational talent from Slovenia at its core.
Irving, now 32, reflected on some of his low points with and against the Celtics in recent years, revealing he was in a dark place, due to off-court issues, during some of the more controversial outbursts.
“When we played in the playoffs and everyone saw me flip off the birds, and kind of lose my s*** a little bit, that wasn’t a great reflection of who I am and how I like to compete on a high level,†Irving told reporters this week.
“It wasn’t a great reflection on my end toward the next generation on what it means to control your emotions in that type of environment no matter what people are yelling at you. I’m built for these moments to be able to handle circumstances like that and I’ve been able to grow since then.â€
"I think I'm better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it's going to be like," he went on.
"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.
Irving is expecting the upcoming games at TD Garden to be a 'hectic environment' but one that he is looking forward to.
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“I see it as a healthy relationship with the fans,†Irving said. “I almost think about ‘Gladiator’ just win the crowd over. It’s good to hear the TD Garden silent. When you’re playing well they still respect great basketball, so regardless of the attention that’s being paid to what it’s going to be like on my end, I have a group to lead that’s going to be looking to me for a voice of peace.
“And to be able to control what I can control and also help them through it. I’ll take the brunt of it, of all the yells and stuff like that. All the remarks, but I’ve been able to grow since then and acknowledge that I can handle things better. Especially when I want to put a majority of my energy into playing well.â€
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