Kyrie Irving may miss Nov. 27 return to Boston as familiar narratives resurface

As injury and losses from the Brooklyn Nets rekindle old narratives, Kyrie Irving’s potential absence from his first Boston return isn’t helping change them.

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Kyrie Irving may prove unable to play in the first game between the  Celtics and Brooklyn Nets since the All-NBA guard left Boston in free agency this summer.

Nursing an impinged shoulder that has had him out for two games, Irving’s new team currently sits in ninth place in the East, struggling to win whether the polarizing point guard plays or sits. Familiar narratives to Boston fans have already begun to circulate among an entirely new fan base, and familiar patterns may be poised to emerge as well.

The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reports the return is uncertain for the Brooklyn Nets’ first trip to Boston, with Nets coach Kenny Atkinson reluctant to speculate he’ll have recovered by Nov. 27, raising the eyebrows of people who recall Irving’s reluctance to play away games in Ohio after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers.

While injury reports should almost always be taken at face value as a reasonable explanation for why Irving might miss next week’s matchup with the Celtics, it’s hard to blame fans for pondering whether a reluctance to face his former home crowd is a contributing factor.

Irving has only played at Cleveland once since being traded away from the Cavaliers and that exception being the very first game he played with Boston since forcing his way out of Northeast Ohio.

Now, in his new home (Brooklyn), he’ll likely miss another potential return to the Land, with the Nets scheduled to face the Cavs two times before they travel to Boston.

It’s not implausible that the mercurial guard wouldn’t want to revisit the scene of one of the most difficult years he’s had both on and off the court, having found himself not up to the task of leading a hungry, hydra-headed competitor that fell flat on their face while his personal life imploded. And however you feel about Kyrie, his teammates don’t hold him to blame for what went down last year.

At least, not entirely.

Irving’s tenure in Boston was as marked by injury as it was by frustration. Frustration which seems, at least early this season, has followed him to a new franchise.

One that finds itself struggling with a key star out and recuperating from catastrophic injury while fans of his team openly question whether his current franchise is better when he sits.

While the two situations are very different in many ways, the parallels beg the question of what Irving needs to succeed. Whatever it was, he didn’t find it in Boston last season, or for that matter, Boston didn’t find it in him.

Most Celtics aficionados would prefer to put debates like this behind them, content to enjoy the success of their new floor general in the affable Kemba Walker, as well as the gritty young core of rookies that the team drafted to replace Irving, Terry Rozier, Marcus Morris and fan favorite big man Al Horford.

Regardless of why such a talented player has been unable to replicate elsewhere the success he had during his time with the Cavs, aside from the absence of a future Hall of Fame player in LeBron James, Irving’s habit of missing the home games of former teams isn’t doing his legacy any favors among his former fan bases.

Not that it seems to be something keeping the former Blue Devil awake at night.

Whether the patterns following Uncle Drew from Boston to Brooklyn are indicative of a flaw in Irving’s approach to the game, a sign he needs a certain milieu to achieve at his highest levels or simply bad luck, one truth about Irving’s future is certain: Whenever he does show up to play an away game in TD Garden, the return won’t be a quiet one.