The 5 most hateful moments between Kyrie Irving and Celtics fans

There’s been A LOT of animosity between Kyrie Irving and Boston. Let’s look back.

There’s obviously no love lost between Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics. The fanfare between the two sides was gone long before the dude decided to leave. But once he did that? It was certainly over.

You rarely see a fanbase make such a turn against a player while also having that player simultaneously return some of that ire, but that’s definitely the case here. Irving doesn’t like Boston and Boston doesn’t like him either.

But what did Irving do to make Celtics fans so mad at him? There’s quite a list of things that turned the relationship there inside out.

Let’s go over some of them.

Irving told Celtics fans he would stay and then didn’t

This is at the crux of it all. Irving told Celtics fans that he’d re-sign with the team. Then he didn’t.

He also destroyed the team’s chemistry on his way out the door. The Celtics were still good, but it obviously took years to get the vibes back to where they needed to be.

There were some not-so-fun times in Boston after Irving left.

He burned sage in TD Garden

Ok, so this one is a bit complicated. Irving burned some sage in TD Garden ahead of a Nets game back at the arena to “cleanse the energy” of the arena, which Celtics fans definitely took offense to.

That’s not necessarily a slight — burning sage is a key part of Indigenous culture. Typically, it’s done to cleanse and purge negative energies in one’s own home, which is why it’s hilarious that Irving did it at the Celtics’ arena.

Not going to lie — this one was pretty funny. People had a ton of fun with it back then.

Irving stomped the Celtics’ logo

Now, with this one, it’s kind of hard to be upset at Irving here. He stomped the Celtics’ logo after a playoff game at TD Garden with the Nets back in 2021.

To be fair to Kyrie, not long after this a fan was arrested and banned for life from TD Garden after throwing a bottle at Irving and his Nets teammates. That logo stomp felt kind of deserved after that.

Irving called the Celtics a “scorned girlfriend”

This one was definitely rude. He was asked about the boos he receives from Celtics fans at TD Garden. Here’s what he had to say:

“I know it’s going to be like that for the rest of my career coming in here. It’s like the scorned girlfriend, wants an explanation on why I left but still hoping for a text back. It was fun while it lasted,” Irving said.

Yup. Rude.

Kyrie also flipped off Celtics fans after a playoff game

During the Nets’ and Celtics’ playoff showdown in 2022, Irving to a ton of boos from the crowd. That evolved into a “Kyrie sucks” chant.

After hitting a shot, he even flipped some fans off.

Yeah, that dude hasn’t had the best relationship with Boston.

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