One of the salient talking points in this year’s NBA Finals is the contentious relationship between Boston Celtics fans and Kyrie Irving, given his time with the team from 2017 to 2019.
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Kyrie Irving was traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics in a blockbuster deal in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick that turned into Collin Sexton.
When he arrived in Boston, Kyrie Irving was supposed to lead the team to its first NBA championship since 2008. However, they never did, and Irving eventually left the team to join Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019.
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Fast forward to today, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks are going up against the Boston Celtics, with the latter holding a 1-0 series lead after they won Game 1 on Thursday.
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According to Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrated, since Kyrie Irving was the only Boston player with a ring at the time, he used it as leverage to try and get his way within the team, which essentially ruined their chemistry and morale.
“Jaylen Brown and Kyrie Irving had a lot of friction. Al Horford and Kyrie Irving had a lot of friction,” Mannix said via NBC Sports Boston. “The biggest problem Kyrie had in Boston was that he used the fact that he was the only champion in that locker room as a cudgel (to get his way).”
“He basically said, ‘I got this ring, and you guys don’t. You guys know nothing. It’s my way or the highway.’ And it always went over poorly in that locker room,” he added.
Kyrie Irving’s run with the Boston Celtics is largely seen as a failure because they didn’t get to the NBA Finals – let alone win the championship – despite having a strong roster. Once upon a time, Kyrie Irving’s teammates were Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, and Gordon Hayward, among others.
