Getty Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets and Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics.
Well, this is a step up from, say, flipping off the crowd back in Game 1. Kyrie Irving may not have left the Boston Celtics on the best of terms back in 2019, but it appears he still has a connection with some of the players he once played with during his days as a Celtic. After the Celtics completed their sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Irving took to Twitter to congratulate the Celtics, or more specifically, the players on their roster.
While it remains to be seen if Kyrie is trying to bury the hatchet with the Celtics franchise, it is classy of him to shout out Boston’s players for a hard-fought series and wish them the best of luck for the rest of their playoff run. No matter what happened during his time with the team from 2017 to 2019, it appears Irving does not hold anything against the guys he used to go to battle with. Remember that earlier in the series, he also praised Head Coach Ime Udoka and his former head coach Brad Stevens, so his recent well wishes aren’t completely out of left field.
All that remained was how the fans would respond to Kyrie’s comments. The reaction was mixed, to say the least.
Some Celtics Fans Appreciated Kyrie’s Sentiment
Because it has been almost three years since everything went down between Irving and the Celtics, some fans have already long since let go of any animosity towards him. So, in light of Irving praising the Celtics players, some fans of the team took kindly to his words when he congratulated those on his former team.
Very classy, he’s still a good dude
What helps is that the Celtics have more or less endured as a team since Irving skipped town. They made the Eastern Conference Finals the following year after his departure. While things definitely did not go as well as planned the following season, they played well enough to earn themselves the no. 2 seed this season.
What helps some fans let go of the past is knowing the team’s future is bright no matter what happened. Some fans took so kindly to Kyrie’s words that they even proposed a potential reunion in Boston.
@KyrieIrving you should come back to boston imo, run it back and get back to being beloved in the city
As ugly as the ending of the Kyrie era was in Boston, would the majority of Celtics fans be opposed to that?
Other Celtics Fans Rubbed it in his Face
The combination of how things played out between Boston and Kyrie and his antics since leaving, like stomping on the logo during the 2021 playoffs and flipping off the fans during Game 1, has created some hard feelings among the fans. So much so that, even after Kyrie wished the Celtics players the best, some Celtics fans let him have it.
For example, one fan reminded Kyrie of a promise he made back in February that the Nets would be better coming out of the all-star break.
Others threw the sentiment back in his face, saying that the current Celtics were not Kyrie’s brothers and that they “own” him.
@KyrieIrving They are not ur brothers lil bro We own u
Others straight up called him the nickname that many gave him upon leaving Boston, “Byrie.”
It’s fair to assume that a good portion of the Celtics fanbase has not forgiven him and may never will. Then again, all indications are Kyrie doesn’t care if he’s in good graces with the Celtics fanbase.
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