After Tuesday’s Nets-Celtics game in Brooklyn, former Celtics player and Nets star Guard Kyrie Irving made reference to incidents reported by visiting players who were the subject of racial slurs by fans in attendence over the years. He made the comment in an effort to deflect the fact he’s not personally looking forward to hearing Celtics fans, who have been eagerly awaiting his return to Boston for almost two years.
A few months before the start of the 2018-19 NBA Season, Irving told Celtics fans he planned to renew his contract with the team. Irving ended up missing chunks of the 2018-19 season including the playoffs due to injury while emerging Celtics stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals without him. The talking heads in the sports world ate it up because it seemingly reinforced the assertion that Irving can’t lead a team on his own.
Irving left Boston during the offseason and signed with the Brooklyn Nets. Not long afterward, 2-time NBA Champion Kevin Durant signed with the Nets. They would be joined by veteran all star Center DeAndre Jordan and thus, the Nets instantly had a Big Three of their own. Durant, who suffered a devastating leg injury during the 2019 NBA Finals while a member of the Golden State Warriors would miss the entire 2019-20 season. Irving would also miss most of the season due to injury.
Fast forward to this week. In Philadelphia, a fan was ejected and later had his Season Membership revoked throwing popcorn on Russell Westbrook as he was leaving the game with an injury. At Madison Square Garden, Hawks players were reportedly spat on by fans in attendance. These incidents hadn’t happened yet when Irving made his comments.
Just so we’re clear, he wasn’t talking about fans mad that he left Boston. Fomer Celtic Gordon Hayward left for Charlotte during the offseason but he didn’t get that kind of reception when he returned to Boston (though at the time, fans weren’t in attendence yet).
After the Hawks-Knicks game, Hawks star Trae Young shrugged off the hecking from the crowd directed at him by simply saying it comes with the territory. He said this in response to reports Knicks fans were circulating a flyer directing them on what to chant during the game. The Hawks won that game but lost the next one which was also in New York. Several NBA players voiced their opinion online with some saying they think it’s disrespectful. Jamal Crawford plainly stated today’s players were soft.
On that note. Irving was specifically referring to heckling that is sure to come his way during tonight’s game. The fact that he brought up the history of racial slurs directed at Black players on the visiting team in Boston specifically was clearly an effort to avoid the obvious. That said. The mother and sister of Jazz All Star Donovan Mitchell revealed they had three fans ejected after their use of racial slurs directed at him during the Grizzlies-Jazz game the other day. It is worth noting the NBA has a zero tolerence policy for anyone throwing things at players or on the court as well as anyone shouting racial slurs at players.
Obscenities are a different matter. That’s something Celtics Fans have become pretty famous or imfamous for in recent years:
…Boston Sports fans in general are quite passionate, yes? Oh and by the way only 5,000 fans were in attendance with that last one. Sounds like a full house though, doesn’t it?
LeBron James commented on playing in Boston in the past, saying he enjoys enjoys the fans. “There’s nothing like it.” Given he led three different teams through the Eastern Conference to a title–going through the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals as well–that should come as no surprise.
In general, you need to have a spine if you’re on the visiting team playing in Boston. The same is true for the home team too actually. This is something Irving knows all too well. The Boston Celtics have won 17 NBA Championships, a record the Lakers tied last year.
There’s also the fact combined, a Boston area team has won a championship almost every other year since 2002. The Boston Red Sox ended their 86-year championship drought back in 2004 but went on the win a few more more since then. Both the Celtics and Bruins won a title since then though the Bruins returned to the Stanley Cup Finals a few times since their championship win in 2010. That’s also the last time the Celtics made it to the NBA Finals.
As a reminder, there are a lot of pro sports teams in North America that to this day have never won a championship. Boston’s 40 Championships across its four pro sports teams is actually second to New York’s 61. The New York Yankees have won 27 Championships which is the most of any pro team across all sports.
…Why do fans of other teams hate Boston so much? I just told you: Combined, Boston area teams have won more championships than any other city since 2002. No team has made it to the championship game since then more than the New England Patriots though that’s obviously going to change for a while now with Tom Brady now playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bruins beat former Bruins star Zedeno Chara and his new team in the first round of this year’s NHL Playoffs. The Red Sox have been in a bit of a rebuilding mode in recent years. The Celtics haven’t been able to make it to the NBA Finals despite several trips to the Eastern Conference Finals in recent years.
All that said, I’ll wrap this up with some of Jaylen Brown’s comments from the pre-game press conference before tonight’s game: All Boston Sports fans are not racist. All of Boston is not racist. Yes the city has problems. Yes, there are idiots who say things they shouldn’t at games. They do not represent all of Boston Sports fans though.
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