Kyrie Irving reminisces about growing up as a ‘struggling Nets fan’

On a recent Instagram Live stream, Kyrie Irving talked about how the New Jersey Nets helped him get to where he is in the NBA now.

Playing for an NBA franchise is special, but playing for the team you grew up following is even more unique. Kyrie Irving now gets to do the latter as a member of the Nets organization.

But Irving’s fandom predates the move to Brooklyn. He went to Nets games when they were still played in East Rutherford, New Jersey. And Irving has some vivid memories those days, as he explained on an Instagram Live stream with his friend Jerry Green:

Being a struggling Nets fan at one point … oh my goodness, bro. All my Jersey people know, before the Nets went to Brooklyn, trying to fill that Continental Airlines Arena up. They were selling three-game packages for like $90. They had, like, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Pacers and the Raptors, and you could get it for, like, $99. And my dad would buy that package of games, and I just remember the smell of popcorn, I remember the seats.

I went home from that finals game that I went to [with] my dad, we were up in the nosebleeds, bro. I still have the waving white towel from when they were in the finals.

Those experiences with his dad played a part in Irving’s climb to the NBA. It’s what led him to write down the following promise to himself in his childhood closet:

I am going to the NBA!!

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