The Celtics made a big-time move during the 2017 NBA offseason as they looked to bolster their chances of competing for an NBA championship.
Boston made a trade with the four-time-reigning Eastern Conference champion Cavaliers. The Celtics sent All-NBA second-teamer and top-five MVP finisher Isaiah Thomas to Cleveland along with wing Jae Crowder, center Ante Zizic and three draft picks — including the Nets’ 2018 first-round selection.
In return, the Celtics got star point guard Kyrie Irving.
Irving was just 25 when he was traded to the Celtics, and the thought process on Boston’s end was that he could be a great long-term fit next to Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Irving would give the team another young talent and a core that could contend for an NBA title for a decade-plus if all went well.
However, all did not go well between the two parties. It went from a promising partnership in Year 1 to a contentious marriage that ended after just two seasons.
Once things went sour, Irving became a villain in Boston. That led to plenty of drama between Irving and Celtics fans as the Nets and Celtics squared off often during his time in Brooklyn.
And now with Dallas, Irving’s squad is what stands between the Celtics and an NBA-record 18th championship.
Here’s what to know about Irving’s tenure with the Celtics and the rivalry that spawned from his Boston departure.
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Kyrie Irving Celtics timeline
Kyrie Irving pledges loyalty to Celtics
Boston fans were looking forward to their second season of the Kyrie Irving era when he gave them a pleasant surprise on eve of the season.
Irving expressed at a preseason fan event Oct. 4, 2018, that he planned to sign a new deal with the Celtics after the season.
“If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here,” Irving said to the Boston crowd, per NBA.com.
Irving continued his praise of the Celtics the following day. He commended the team for “taking a chance” on him being the team’s No. 1 star and expressed he enjoyed playing in Boston.
“I’m happy here,” Irving said, per ESPN. “Every single day is at an all-time competitive high. What more can you ask for from an organization than taking a chance as far as getting me out of Cleveland? Really taking a chance regardless of whether I signed back or not.”
“They had the same attitude,” he added. “They just wanted to show me what being a Celtic is about, and that I was going to come around, and I absolutely did. I believe in it. I believe in the franchise.”
If that wasn’t enough, Irving also spoke about his appreciation for the Celtics’ rich history. He expressed he wanted someday to see his jersey in the TD Garden rafters along with the plethora of Celtics greats to have their numbers retired.
Irving endeared himself to Celtics fans with those comments, but those would stand as the last remnants of good feelings between Irving and the Boston faithful.
Kyrie Irving’s frustration begins to mount
The Celtics got off to a difficult start during the 2018-19 NBA season. They went just 10-10 in their first 20 games despite many prognosticators presuming they would be better as Irving settled into his role and both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown progressed.
Boston gradually started to improve as the season went on, but there appeared to be growing tension within the team. Irving exhibited frustration at times, and that was never more apparent than his outburst following the Celtics’ 105-103 loss to the Magic on Jan. 12, 2019.
The Celtics were trailing by two when Gordon Hayward sent an inbounds pass to Tatum with 2.9 seconds left on the clock. He missed a potential game-tying, mid-range fall away, and Irving didn’t take kindly to Hayward’s decision to give the ball to Tatum.
Irving shouted at Hayward as the Celtics left the court.
Irving wanted either a chance at the last shot or an opportunity to touch the ball on the final play. After Boston’s loss, he spoke about how he differed from his teammates, blaming their lack of experience for some of the team’s struggles to date.
That game led to a turning point in Irving’s relationship with the Celtics, as things got colder as the season progressed.
Kyrie Irving walks back commitment to Celtics
On Feb. 1, 2019 — just three weeks after Boston’s loss to Orlando — Irving walked back his commitment to rejoin the Celtics following the season.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to do what’s best for my career,” Irving said, per NBC Sports Boston. “I spent the last eight years trying to do what everyone else wanted me to do — managers, other personnel — and I don’t owe anybody s—.”
Irving expressed he remained confident in the Celtics “and what they can promise for the future.” Still, he opened the door he had once shut by suggesting he could leave Boston.
Irving was set to be an unrestricted free agent, so he had the right to choose his next destination. Nonetheless, his change of priorities made his preseason comments about wanting his number hung in the TD Garden rafters seem disingenuous to Celtics fans. That sparked the beginning of the rift between Irving and the Boston faithful.
Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant meeting sparks team-up rumors
Irving went to the NBA All-Star Game about two weeks after his walk-back. There, he had a conversation with then-Warriors forward Kevin Durant. Speculation about the conversation ran rampant, with many believing the two could be talking about a potential team-up in Brooklyn.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving last night 👀
(@jpizzy15 sent me the video) pic.twitter.com/xKXT8MPnwm
— Ben Stinar (@BenStinar) February 18, 2019
Irving was asked about the conversation and implied he was annoyed a private conversation between him and one of his best friends became a massive storyline.
“I don’t have a private life when I’m out there in the NBA,” Irving said, per The Boston Globe. “Somebody wants to take a video, it is what it is. Pour water on [the speculation]? I’m a human being talking to another best friend of mine. It’s just crazy.
“This is the stuff that just doesn’t make the league fun. Nobody helps promote the league by doing [expletive] like that. Just fictitious, putting things on like what we’re talking about, it’s crazy. I guess that’s what you want, huh?”
Of course, Irving eventually teamed up with Durant on the Nets following the 2018-19 NBA season. While he may not have discussed the possibility with Durant during their filmed conversation, the two players decided to play together at some point before each agreed to a lucrative, long-term extension in Brooklyn.
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Kyrie Irving’s final Celtics season ends with a whimper
The Celtics continued to stumble along in the Eastern Conference playoff race despite Irving’s future remaining in doubt. They swept the Pacers in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs before running into trouble in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Bucks.
Boston won its first game of the series 112-90, sparking hope that the Celtics could beat the Bucks. However, Milwaukee won the next four games consecutively, outscoring Boston by an average of 16.3 points per game.
Irving struggled immensely across those four contests, making just 25 of 83 shots for a stagnant Celtics offense. He then headed to free agency and signed with the Nets to complete an exit that went from improbable to expected in mere months.
Kyrie Irving explains why he left the Celtics to join the Nets
Irving kicked off his media day availability in September 2019 by explaining his decision to join the Celtics. He revealed he wanted to be closer to his New Jersey home to be closer to his family after the death of his grandfather early in the 2018-19 NBA season.
“After he passed, basketball was the last thing on my mind,” Irving said. “A lot of basketball and the joy I had from it was sucked away from me. There was a facial expression that I carried around with me throughout the year. Didn’t allow anyone to get close to me in that instance, and it really bothered me.
“I didn’t take the necessary steps to get counseling or get therapy or anything to deal with someone that close to me dying. I’ve never dealt with anything like that. So, for me, I responded in ways that are uncharacteristic.”
Irving further detailed that he spoke to the Celtics about what he was going through. However, his desire to re-sign in Boston began to wane as he realized that basketball prevented him from seeing his grandfather before his death.
“I talked to Danny [Ainge] and I wanted to re-sign. So throughout the year, it started becoming more and more clear that my relationship within my home life had a way higher precedence than the organization or anyone,” Irving said.
“A lot of the battles I thought I could battle through in the [Boston] team environment, I just wasn’t ready for,” he continued. “And I failed those guys, in the sense that I didn’t give them everything I could have during that season. … In terms of me being a leader in that environment and bringing everyone together, I failed.”
Irving’s explanation certainly provided an insight into his decision, and his admission that he “failed” his Celtics teammates showed he was willing to take some of the blame for the tumultuous split.
Still, Boston fans were miffed hearing Irving “didn’t give them everything that [he] could have” before his departure. That, along with his decision to join one of the Celtics’ divisional rivals, further established him as a villain in the eyes of the Celtics faithful.
Kyrie Irving burns sage at TD Garden, plays against Celtics for first time since leaving
Irving didn’t play against the Celtics during his first season with the Nets, as a shoulder injury limited him to just 20 games during the COVID-impacted season. His first game at the TD Garden came in the preseason.
Fans weren’t allowed into the contest because of COVID restrictions, but NBC Sports Boston’s cameras captured video of Irving marching around the court burning sage.
Kyrie Irving makes his return to TD Garden.
Coverage of #Celtics-Nets begins at 7:30 p.m. on @NBCSBoston with Celtics Pregame Live! pic.twitter.com/7P82E6EqO9
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) December 18, 2020
Why was Irving doing that?
“It just comes from a lot of native tribes,” Irving explained after the game, per CBS Sports.
“Being able to sage, just cleanse the energy, make sure that we’re all balanced. When we come into this job, we come into this place, it’s not anything that I don’t do at home that I did today. I saged last game, and I plan to sage almost every game if the opposing team will allow me to.
“But, literally, it’s more or less for us to stay connected and for us to feel great about going to work and feeling safe and provided for from our ancestors. I’m not going to bring too much of the spirituality into basketball, but yeah, it’s part of my native culture where I’m from.”
Fast forward a week, and Irving’s Nets were once again at the TD Garden for a Christmas Day matchup. Irving fared well in that contest, which was played in front of an empty TD Garden. He scored 37 points with six rebounds and eight assists in a 123-95 Nets win.
Irving said there was “nothing added” to his motivation in his first game against the Celtics since his departure.
“We’re going to continue to see them,” Irving told the Associated Press. “We’re in the same division.”
Irving’s words rang true. The teams faced off in Brooklyn twice more in the 2020-21 regular season and met in the first round of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.
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Kyrie Irving calls out ‘subtle racism’ of Boston fans
The Nets won the first two games of their playoff series against the Celtics. The two teams were heading to the TD Garden for Games 3 and 4 of the series when Irving was asked what it would be like to play in front of Boston fans for the first time, as COVID restrictions were being lifted in Massachusetts.
Irving’s response? “Hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball; there’s no belligerence or racism going on — subtle racism,” Irving said, per ESPN’s Malika Andrews. “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.”
Irving was asked whether he had been targeted by racist comments at the TD Garden before. He shrugged and said he “was not the only one that can attest to this,” per ESPN.
Irving’s comments became a hot topic before Game 3, with many recalling examples of racism in Boston sports from previous years. In January 2019, a fan who used “racially offensive language” toward Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins was banned from the TD Garden for two years.
In May 2017, then-Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones detailed “one of the worst cases of fan abuse” he had ever suffered during his career.
“A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,” Jones said after the game in question, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. “I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.”
Celtics legend Bill Russell had his own troubles with racism among Boston fans during his lifetime. He once referred to the city as “a flea market of racism.”
Marcus Smart revealed he was called a racist slur outside of the TD Garden in a personal essay published on The Players’ Tribune in 2020, He backed up Irving’s claims a couple of days after the former Celtic’s comments about Boston.
“Yeah, I’ve heard it. I’ve heard a couple of things,” Smart said of Boston fans making racist comments, per Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith. “It’s hard to hear that and then have them support us as players. It’s kind of sad and sickening.”
Kyrie Irving stomps on Celtics logo, Lucky the Leprechaun
Irving’s first game in front of Boston fans — played on May 28, 2021, with TD Garden at 25 percent capacity — passed relatively incident-free. The Celtics won the contest 125-119 while the fans relentlessly jeered Irving.
Game 4, however, was a different story.
The entire TD Garden was open for seating, and Irving’s Nets won 141-126 to take a 3-1 series lead. Irving celebrated by greeting his teammates as they went to the locker room. He met them at halfcourt and stomped on the face of Lucky the Leprechaun — the Celtics’ long-time logo — while he was out there.
Kyrie appeared to step on the Boston logo as he greeted his teammates at half court postgame.
(via @yornoc74) pic.twitter.com/thcXjX15He
— ESPN (@espn) May 31, 2021
Sports fans are often staunch defenders of their logos — as we saw when Baker Mayfield planted his Oklahoma flag on the Ohio State logo — so naturally, the Celtics faithful didn’t take kindly to Irving’s actions.
Even Boston legend Cedric Maxwell was irked by Irving’s stomp.
Kyrie, u are a great player! Why the classes act?
(#Kyrie stomps on iconic #Celtics leprechaun.) pic.twitter.com/iyOKgP9EGi
— Cedric Maxwell (@cedricmaxwell81) May 31, 2021
While the incident wasn’t anything major, it furthered the divide between Irving and the Celtics fan base and gave Boston more reason to treat him as the team’s No. 1 enemy.
Perhaps it also brought Irving some bad karma. He is just 1-10 against Boston since he stomped on Lucky’s face.
Celtics fan throws water bottle at Kyrie Irving
The more major incident from the aftermath of Game 4 occurred when a Celtics fan hurled a water bottle at Irving as he was leaving the court. The bottle whistled just by Irving’s head, and he and his then-teammate Tyler Johnson turned angrily to the crowd to berate the man who threw it.
Below is a look at the incident, per YES.
Water bottle nearly hits Kyrie Irving as he walks to the locker room following Game 4 in Boston. pic.twitter.com/RrtZth3cqt
— YES Network (@YESNetwork) May 31, 2021
Irving was understandably upset with what happened and sounded off about the fan’s actions after the game.
“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.
“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. But then you just see people just feel very entitled out here. They paid for their tickets — great, I’m grateful that they’re coming in to watch a great performance.
“But we’re not at the theater. We’re not throwing tomatoes and other random stuff at the people that are performing. It’s just too much.”
Irving wasn’t the only player targeted by opposing fans during the 2021 postseason, which saw many fans return to arenas as COVID restrictions were lifted. A 76ers fan dumped popcorn on Russell Westbrook during Game 2 of the 76ers vs. Wizards series. A Knicks fan spat at Trae Young as the Hawks star began a rivalry with the New York faithful.
Meanwhile, Jazz fans made racist and vulgar comments to the family of Ja Morant in the first two games of their series with the Grizzlies.
Still, the Celtics fan’s actions were unacceptable, and the TD Garden took them seriously. The fan — 21-year-old Cole Buckley of Braintree, Mass. — was arrested and charged with assault and battery using a dangerous weapon. He also received a life-long ban from the venue.
And his actions further damaged the reputation of Boston fans, which had already taken a hit with Irving’s comments earlier in the week.
Kyrie Irving flips off Celtics fans during game at TD Garden
Boston fans and Irving went nearly a year between the water bottle toss and Irving’s next return to the TD Garden. He played just once in four chances against the Celtics during the 2022 regular season — a 126-120 Celtics win — but the Nets and Celtics once again faced off in the postseason. This time, Boston was favored to make a championship run.
Irving got the unceremonious welcome he had come to expect in Boston, but he was clearly bothered by it in Game 1 of the 2022 postseason. It didn’t impact his performance — he scored 39 points against the Celtics — but he let the fans get in his head a bit.
Irving flipped off the Celtics fans at the TD Garden at least twice during the Celtics’ 115-114 victory. He explained after the game he decided to give the fans “the same energy” they were giving to him.
“When people start yelling ‘p—y’ or ‘b—’ and ‘f— you’ and all this stuff, there’s only but so much you take as a competitor,” Irving said, per ESPN. “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.”
Irving was fined $ 50,000 by the NBA for “making obscene gestures on the playing court and directing profane language toward the spectator stands.” He was much calmer in Game 2 but scored just 10 points in a seven-point Nets loss.
That was the last game Irving played in Boston during the 2022 NBA postseason. The Celtics swept the Nets to win the first-round series.
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Kyrie Irving reflects on Celtics tenure
Irving’s games against the Celtics during the next two regular seasons were relatively drama-free, but now, he is set to square off with his former squad in the NBA Finals.
Things are a lot different for Irving now. He was traded to the Mavericks before the 2023 NBA trade deadline and has since become a dynamic backcourt partner for Luka Doncic.
He also has reflected on some of his low points during his time with the Celtics and playing against them. He said he has received some “fair criticism” of his short, two-year tenure in Boston.
“I know sometimes in sports, it’s literally about the end goal and result and what you accomplish, and that’s one thing,” Irving said, per ESPN. “But we’re still human at the end of the day. I wasn’t my best self during that time. When I look back on it, I just see it as a time where I learned how to let go of things and learned how to talk through my emotions.
“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.”
Irving also admitted he now regrets his behavior during his trip to the TD Garden during the 2022 postseason.
“I think I’m better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it’s going to be like,” he 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.
“But 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 s— a little bit — that wasn’t a great reflection of who I am and how I like to compete on a high level. 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.
“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.”
Thus, it seems Irving is ready to let bygones be bygones. Celtics fans may not be there yet — and they may never get there, at least not as long as Irving is playing — but perhaps the guard’s admission will start to smooth things over as the fifth anniversary of Irving’s departure arrives.
If not, Irving will have a chance to add another chapter to his story as one of Boston’s biggest sports villains by leading Dallas to an NBA Finals win.
