Kyrie responds to Boston's taunts

Kyrie Irving sounds off on booing fans in long, emotional Instagram post after Nets lose to Celticd

By Andy Nesbitt

The Celtics beat the Nets on Wednesday night in what was suppose to be Kyrie Irving’s first game back in Boston since he left the team as a free agent during the offseason. Irving, however, is currently sitting out with a shoulder injury and didn’t make the trip.

His presence was still very much felt in Boston, as fans posted “Coward” signs with Irving’s face on them around the arena and then had many boisterous anti-Kyrie chants during the game.

Boston won the game, thanks in large part to Kemba Walker’s 39 points. It was Walker’s first game back since he was taken off the floor on a stretcher after suffering a neck injury last week in Denver.

Shortly after the game Irving posted an extremely long, 325-word post on Instagram in which he called out fans, the NBA, the media, and the “circus” that surrounds it all.

Here’s what he wrote. It’s a lot:

It happens all the time and Tonight just shows how Sports/Entertainment will always be ignorant and obtrusive. It’s one big SHOW that means Very VERY little in the real world that most people live in because there are Actually things that matter going on within it. Like figuring out a life that means more to than A dam Ball going into ahoop, or learning how to grow up being in a fish bowl of a society based on your popularity level as a person, or even dealing with becoming the leader of your family after someone’s passing and not knowing how to deal with Life after it happens. Buttt, This Game of Sports entertainment matters more than someone’s mental health and well being right? Or the real life things that happen to people everyday but they still have to Perform for the NBA and its fans? Right? It’s all about doing it for the fans and organization that love you so much? Think again, It’s a GAME, and it’s promoted as a Fandom experience for ticket buyers and viewers at home, while defacing who people truly are as PEOPLE. Then spat out all over these media networks as valuable food for thought while they actually believe that their opinions hold weight to real cultural leaders that speak and act for change. One big Gimmick with Some smoke and mirrors! I’ll always be the one that takes the stand and speaks the truth every time though. A purposeful and spiritually led Life will always be bigger and more meaningful than any sports arena or any entertainment space. This GAME isn’t meant to be controlled and shown as a Drama, it’s meant to show the LOVE. Love for the Art is the Only damn thing that keeps the purist people in this Giant Sports/Entertainment Circus. Don’t fall for the Game that’s played in front of you as Entertainment, it’ll never be as serious dealing with LIFE.

There’s a lot to unpack there and I don’t think I have a enough degrees to make sense of it all and it’s late at night on the night before Thanksgiving.

But here’s my main takeaway from it – Kyrie has a lot on his mind and is apparently trying to work through some things. Here’s hoping he can.

Ughhh. I don't even know what to say about this. I think I actually feel a little bad for Kyrie??? Despite the words in his post, he obviously cares very much what people think about him. That being said, it is so tone deaf. Dude just doesn't get it.... I was against the trade when it first happened mostly because I had become such an IT fan, but I clearly remember saying Kyrie isn't mentally built for the Boston sports scene. This is one instance where I am sorry I was so right.

Something... something.. blah blah, round earth.. my feelings are hurt... something something.. blah blah..

Really no one who wears Kelly Green with any regularity gives a $#!¥ what he has to say..

Matty wrote:  Something... something..  blah blah, round earth..  my feelings are hurt... something something.. blah blah..

Really no one who wears Kelly Green with any regularity  gives a $#!¥ what he has to say..  

Maybe he has anxiety about getting to close to the edge of the earth and falling off...

Man up, just shut the flip up, say nothing, your acting like the pussy that you really are....

cowens/oldschool wrote:Man up, just shut the flip up, say nothing, your acting like the pussy that you really are....

An act?

One bizzare cat for sure. If he needs professional help I truly hope he gets it. If he doesn’t need professional help I don’t know what to say............

Well he seems to value and need love, and I truly hope he gets it and feels it. We fans are better off without him now, so there is no need to harbor any resentments. Go with peace and love Kyrie. Find it, feel it, and share it.

worcester wrote:Well he seems to value and need love, and I truly hope he gets it and feels it. We fans are better off without him now, so there is no need to harbor any resentments. Go with peace and love Kyrie. Find it, feel it, and share it.

He could have had the sort of relationship Boston has with guys like Smart. Instead he choose
Brooklyn. Instead he has joined another much smaller class of players, players like Ray Allen and Mark Blount.

Instead we fans get to cheer for a team made up of much happier than last years squad and looking like one that will play a much longer post season.

I guess it was not possible for him to take the high road.  Instead he stepped right into a pile of you know what.  His ego controlled his emotions.

I cannot recall the last time a player was jeered and was not even at the game.  

He had an opportunity here to play with a fantastic group of guys.  He choose to go elsewhere and will forever be scorned by some Celtics fans.  

Celtics fans are dancing inside of his head.

worcester wrote:Well he seems to value and need love, and I truly hope he gets it and feels it. We fans are better off without him now, so there is no need to harbor any resentments. Go with peace and love Kyrie. Find it, feel it, and share it.

                                                           +1

Matty wrote:

worcester wrote:Well he seems to value and need love, and I truly hope he gets it and feels it. We fans are better off without him now, so there is no need to harbor any resentments. Go with peace and love Kyrie. Find it, feel it, and share it.

He could have had the sort of relationship  Boston has with guys like Smart. Instead he choose
Brooklyn. Instead he has joined another much smaller class of players,  players like Ray Allen and Mark Blount.

Instead we fans get to cheer for a team made up of much happier than last years squad and looking like one that will play a much longer post season.

I was kind of thinking of Brian Shaw, too. Could of been a star here but let ego get in the way of both personal and team success. (At least Ray helped us win a championship but it’s too bad that he drove Tony away and then ditched us. Like Kyrie, he played Danny in the end)

You guys and gal figured it out. I put this on the wrong thread!

OK. The whole Kyrie thing. Of course ESPN is right out of the shoot with it this morning with their Absent Kyrie story again painting Celtics fans as insensitive or boorish. Story includes part of Kyrie's lengthy response via the intertube or tweeter or facepage. Some of it good some of it classic Plato-istic Kyrie waxing on about a variety of topics. Let's wrap this up because this movie's too long.

1. As my Uncle Goerge always used to say, God rest his sole, "An opinion is like an a$$hole, everybody's got one." My uncle was the master of the one liner. I know this one is an oldie but it's still a goodie. I thought growing up he was the originator of that phrase. I grew up in an extended family with some very funny people. Some great story tellers, others one-line, crack up the whole room in less than 2 seconds types, some were great at both. After attending many family reunions growing up and observing these behaviors, I decided to focus on the latter. And just like anyone here is free to laugh at/criticize/praise my posts, I refer to this gem of wisdom from my uncle all the time...particularly on my side. I never think too highly of myself. Kyrie, thanks for posting, but for the most part, nobody cares what you think off the court. Some of those reasons why will be posted below. The Hollywood types are MASTERS of this line of thinking. They believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that when they speak OFF the screen, we care just as much if not more about them and what they are saying as we do ON the screen with our box office dollars...Yeah, good luck with that.

2. I'm a little tired of the on-going Boston references as described above as well as historically back through the 70's and it being a racist city, etc. Everyone forgets the Celtics, which represent the city of Boston very well, were the first not only to draft the first black player but in the 1964-65 season was the first team to start an all-Black starting 5 team. Those stellar facts always get swept well under the rug and out the door. Oh well. I'm trying to remember, since I was very young during the 60's, whether the Celtics won a championship in that decade with that very forward thinking at the time...

3. With the league's recent mental illness push, I'm almost certain if Kyrie does indeed have any of those issues, there's a pill for that. I don't even know if he is pursuing that or even knows he's acting a certain way or if anyone has sat down with him one-on-one and asked him to at least have it checked out. The league is not going to ban those substances. Right now, Kyrie, not only Boston people but the trail of people you have left in your wake think you might at least need an evaluation. No one is going to think any more or less of you for doing so. And if you don't have anything thank God. You'll probably just be labeled as an odd duck. There are plenty of us out there. The world is FULL of them!

4. Everybody has feelings. With those feelings, others can say things that may rub you the wrong way. Several ways you can react to that. You can lash out, have a civil conversation where you examine all the sides of the concern and resolve, or just take it like water off a duck's back and move on. The latter no one pays attention to anymore. I'm afraid if I were making anywhere near the money some of these athletes are making (and Hollywood types as well) I would easily move on and keep my mouth shut. All I would have to do is go open my checking account with its 8-figures and laugh my happy fat ass all the way to the bank. One of the reasons these folks get paid so much is to provide enough thick $kin to deal with the evidently thin skin some of these players have or what they perceive to the public to have. Yes, we are all human, but we don't treat these folks as human. Welcome to the ballpark you have chosen. You are either a fan or an active professional athlete and both live in two totally different ballparks each with their own idiosyncrasies. But you can't live in both and expect people to react the same way in both.

5. The problem is we feed the beast or keep feeding the beast. We support this. We enable this indirectly with our pocketbooks. If there were no fans, there would be no arenas stuffed with them, paying hundreds if not thousands of dollars per night watching these guys and gals play. There would be no NBA. The Boston fans are free to act out any way they feel within reason regarding ANYTHING! They/We do pay their salaries directly and indirectly. We don't have to shut up. (Payroll and Endorsements)

Kyrie, my advice to you is, thank you for your service here in Boston. You are a phenomenal talent. Both sides are taking credit for the best season you have ever had in the league and both you and Boston are taking the blame for everything that went on last season and coming up short. In the end, it just wasn't a great fit. Happens all the time. Nobody's fault. We hope and pray you will be able to move on from not only this chapter and thrive but everything that has happened to you with your grandfather's death. My grandfather was the first family death I had to deal with in my 18 year life. It devastated me. That was 38 years ago. I have gotten over it and have had many more crushing family and friend deaths since then. You will too.

Your time in this league making the amount of money you make with the talent you possess is very limited. You can't look over your shoulder and see a season injured KD and the team you left last season at the top of the league this season and thriving, potentially see another year sans a non-LeBronian championship, seeing your team record with Kyrie/without Kyrie and feel you made the wrong choice. The NBA is a very strange world. Enjoy it the best you can while you are in it. Thrive.
Win. Most when they get out of it after a few years are flat broke and destitute. Pray you are doing the right things with all that dough so you won't wind up like the majority of those that come out the other end. Spend your time on tweeter being thankful for all that you have and praying for others. I have found when I pray, I spend most if not all of my time just on the thankful part, not asking for stuff I don't have or why God hasn't given me this or that. I feel a lot better when I'm done after I complete prayers of thankfulness and praying for others. Not posting stuff about how I'm going to change the world or worrying about the media or taking a stand or being a performer and what people think of me. You are a great person on and off the court. Thank you for sharing your very unique talent with all of us.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving and again thank you for your time in Boston. We appreciate all that you did on and off the court with your time here.

db

Just to add. With ESPN's no-Kyrie for Friday game story, I'm going to label today's game our first trap game of the season and have us going down. We know the record all too well sans Kyrie. We beat them pretty well on Wednesday. It is almost impossible to win home@home games unless you are the best team in the league vs. the worst team in the league. This isn't one of those circumstances. We're going to wish GH were back after this. Hope I'm completely wrong.

db

bobc33 wrote:One bizzare cat for sure.  If he needs professional help I truly hope he gets it.  If he doesn’t need professional help I don’t know what to say............

He does need it, he must have too many yes men in his inner circle or he’s a loner and has no one. Sad. He’s obviously not a happy dude, his decision making on the floor and in real life is terrible....hope he finds it.

dbrown4 wrote:Just to add.  With ESPN's no-Kyrie for Friday game story, I'm going to label today's game our first trap game of the season and have us going down.  We know the record all too well sans Kyrie.  We beat them pretty well on Wednesday.  It is almost impossible to win home@home games unless you are the best team in the league vs. the worst team in the league.  This isn't one of those circumstances.  We're going to wish GH were back after this.  Hope I'm completely wrong.    

db      

I’m not sure it’s a trap game as much as playing a good team on the road. Those that are playing are a tough, gritty bunch who can shoot you out of the game.

“This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honor, is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

This does not setup as a trap game. To the contrary. The Nets are a very good team that never quits and they will be looking for a measure of revenge.

BingBang! wrote:“This life, which had been the tomb of his virtue and of his honor, is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Quote of the Day winner goes to BingBang! Quoting from Macbeth even, and with an applicable line too.

Beyond that, is anyone else tired of this whole Kyrie thing? And not just from Kyrie's end of things, but from Boston fans who won't let it go as well. I like Jaylen Brown's take on it; time to leave it alone and enjoy this season. I also think Worcester has the proper perspective.

NYCelt

This will not go away any time soon but I think our players are sick of it.

dbrown4 wrote:Just to add.  With ESPN's no-Kyrie for Friday game story, I'm going to label today's game our first trap game of the season and have us going down.  We know the record all too well sans Kyrie.  We beat them pretty well on Wednesday.  It is almost impossible to win home@home games unless you are the best team in the league vs. the worst team in the league.  This isn't one of those circumstances.  We're going to wish GH were back after this.  Hope I'm completely wrong.    

db      

you be spot on with that one!!!

kdp59,

I hate it when I'm right like that!  Just had a feeling.  Too much Thanksgiving Turkey, early start, Home@Home after winning, Kyrie not starting/playing, too much Kyrie off court, no GH...

Our bench did show up it looks like!  Let's hope that continues!

I don't want to be the first to say this, but these are games we should be/need to be winning.  Currently BKN is a playoff team if the season ended today.  But a 7th or 8th seed.  Usually, those are Broomsville whether in the regular season or playoffs.  This doesn't strike the fear of God in the competition. Just an observation.  

db

cowens/oldschool wrote:Man up, just shut the flip up, say nothing, your acting like the pussy that you really are....

Who cares about his philosophy on life? He’s a big pulsating bluveiner and a coward. Nets so far have proven they don’t need his dusty ass either!