Kyrie Irving is putting his former NBA team on notice.
Appearing on a Twitch stream this week, the Brooklyn Nets guard Irving spoke on being swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last year. Irving called it “a humbling experience” but cautioned Boston that they would be seeing the Nets again.
“It was meant to happen like that,” said Irving. “Motivation, bro. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built in to be that matchup.
“We gonna see ’em again,” Irving added. “We gonna have to. They gonna be where they gonna be. But those young-uns over there in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them doing what they did last year, on the Finals stage, making it that far, I’m glad they had to go through us.”
Here is the video (but beware that it has bad language).
The seven-time All-Star Irving played in Boston for two seasons from 2017 to 2019 but left for the Nets in free agency on icy terms. Last season’s playoff matchup against the Celtics was his first postseason meeting with his former team since departing. The series proved to be extremely hostile, as Irving had multiple obscene moments with the Boston crowd. The Celtics won 4-0 though and eventually advanced to their first NBA Finals in over a decade.
Irving will now be running it back with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn for at least one more year, and they will be flanked by new additions TJ Warren, Royce O’Neale, and Markieff Morris (plus hopefully Ben Simmons, who still has yet to play a game for the Nets). With that core, Irving is feeling confident about their chances of getting another stab at the Celtics next postseason.
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