Remembering Kyrie Irving's 4 Worst Celtics Moments
By Ryan Bunton
On Thursday night, the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-103 to capture the Western Conference title and clinch a date with the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Game 1 is set for June 6 in Boston.
The fifth seed in the West, Dallas' backcourt tandem of Irving and Luka Doncic has been the main catalyst for the Mavs' underdog run to the NBA Finals. The Irving-Doncic duo will rightfully command headlines in the build-up to the Finals, but Boston's clash with former Celtic-turned-supervillain Kyrie Irving has already taken a stranglehold on much of the dialogue.
The Celtics acquired Irving in Aug. 2017 in exchange for fan favorite Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, a 2018 first-rounder, and a 2020 second-rounder. Admittedly, his time in Boston was largely successful from a purely basketball standpoint (Irving earned two All-Star nods), but his time in Boston was tumultuous, to say the least.
In the years following Irving's departure, he has done little to extend an olive branch to the franchise and continued to pour fuel on the fire (or fire on the sage) and has embraced the villain role.
With Irving's impending return to Boston on basketball's biggest stage, let's take a look back at his worst Celtics moments, of which there are plenty.
1- "I Plan on Re-signing Here"
The real origin of Irving's villain story, he took the microphone in front of a season-ticket holder event in Oct. 2018 and addressed his future in no uncertain terms, telling Celtics fans: "If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here".
Irving's vow can hardly be dismissed as a slip of the tongue or heat-of-the-moment promise, as he had multiple opportunities to backtrack but instead, he doubled and tripled down on his intention to remain in Boston:
"I’m glad I can share this with the Boston fans and everybody there. I was just happy to get it done with. I just have every intent to sign back. I just wanted to clear that up."
- Kyrie Irving
Beyond just simply re-signing, he went even further to emphasize how he wanted to be mentioned in the same breath as so many of the Celtics greats that came before him, and that he dreamed of his number hanging in the Garden rafters one day:
"I do have a dream of putting my No. 11 in the rafters one day if I’m so blessed to do that. A lot of great players have come before me, but to throw my name in Boston Celtics tradition and history is something I’m glad I can do and plan on doing. I can sit up here and say I want to be one of those guys, but a lot of great players have come through in Celtics history. Quite a few stand out more than the rest. That’s a challenge in itself and I willingly accept … I’m looking forward to it."
- Kyrie Irving
Well, needless to say, Irving's promises came up empty and he chose to team up with Kevin Durant on a four-year, $142 million deal in Brooklyn in July 2019. Why Brooklyn? Well, it involved some scheming on the part of Durant and Irving.