NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 25: Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets goes to the basket as Kemba ... [+]
For the first time since he left the Celtics in 2019 to sign with the Brooklyn Nets in free agency, Kyrie Irving will return to Boston in front of fans.
And the New Jersey native says he hopes he doesn’t face “belligerence or racism” beginning in Game 3 on Friday night.
“I am just looking forward to competing with my teammates and hopefully, we can just keep it strictly basketball; there's no belligerence or any racism going on — subtle racism," Irving said. "People yelling s—- from the crowd, but even if it is, it's part of the nature of the game and we're just going to focus on what we can control.”
Irving added of racism in Boston: “I’m not the only who can attest to this....It is what it is. The whole world knows it.”
His comments will surely add fuel to the fire as the Nets look to move toward a potential sweep of the Celtics.
One person close to Irving speculated that maybe he was making those comments in an effort to fire himself up emotionally ahead of his return to Boston, where he played from 2017-19.
Some “players need things to spur them on,” the person said. “The more the fans are against them, the more they raise up. Who knows, maybe he is one of those people?”
While athletes from Celtics legend Bill Russell to former Orioles outfielder Adam Jones have chronicled their experiences with racism in Boston, Kendrick Perkins, who played in Boston with and against the Celtics, said he never did.
“I played there for eight and half years. I lived there for eight and a half years and, me personally, I never dealt with any type of racism while I was living in Boston,” Perkins said Wednesday morning on “First Take.” “That’s just me personally, I never dealt with it... It’s always extra with [Kyrie]. I don’t even know why we’re surprised by this comment. I don’t even know why we’re surprised.
“Do we expect anything less than Kyrie to be extra about something? I mean, seriously.”
Perkins said Utah was the only NBA city that was “close to racism” or using “out of character comments” while going after players like Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook.
He added of Irving: “It’s almost like let me switch the narrative real quick and say it’s going to be this. Yes, they’re going to boo you obviously. But just take it. Like at the end of the day, it’s part o fit. I mean, my God.”
