Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving made his way back to TD Garden Arena in Boston as his team visited the Celtics for Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday evening.
Irving, 32, played for the Celtics from 2017-19 after requesting a trade from his original Cleveland Cavaliers team.
To say that Irving’s tenure with the Celtics did not end swimmingly would be an understatement. Drama was the name of the game before the NBA champion eventually signed with the Brooklyn Nets.
As pretty much everyone expected, Irving was booed big time by Celtics fans during pre-game introductions Thursday evening. It was not muted.
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Again, this was to be expected. Irving spoke on this leading up to Game 1.
“It’s going to be hell in Boston,” Irving said earlier in the week.
The star guard also looked back on his time in Boston.
“It was just a chapter in my life that I got to enjoy for the most part. We had a great opportunity to do some special things, but it was cut short, just based off personal reasons on my end.
One thing I look back on my time in Boston — I’ve said this over the past few years, but somehow it gets tossed under the rug — but the greatest thing I learned from Boston was just being able to manage not only my emotions or just what’s going on on a day-to-day basis of being a leader of a team or being one of the leaders, and having young guys around you that have their own goals, but you have to learn how to put the big picture first.”
Kyrie Irving on his Boston Celtics tenure