Before he even took the floor against the Boston Celtics on Friday, Kyrie Irving caused a lot of people to doubletake. Brooklyn’s point guard was seen burning sage as he walked around the parquet floor at his old home arena prior to tip-off. After the Nets’ 113-89 win over the Celitcs, Irving told Michael Grady on YES Network that he did that before Sunday’s win over the Wizards, too. Turn out, the point guard hopes to continue with that ritual moving forward.
“[It] comes from a lot of native tribes, being able to sage, Just cleanse the energy, make sure that we’re all balanced,” Irving said on a Zoom call with reporters following Friday’s game. “When we come into this job, when 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 just more or less for us to stay connected and for us to feel great about going to work and feeling safe and provided 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 and where I’m from.”
Kyrie Irving makes his return to TD Garden.
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Irving and the Nets take the floor again on Tuesday when they open up their regular season slate against the Golden State Warriors.
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