Kyrie went 5-16 in getting eliminated and we have schadenfreude.

[Manuel Aristides]

Maybe this is a bad take, but, I think there's something to the idea that it good and fine to hate* Kyrie. For me, a lot of what makes sports enjoyable is easy access to emotions and feelings that are Big Scary Feelings in real life; anguish, heartbreak, elation, idolization, and yes, hatred. I don't hate a lot of people in my life. I don't yell "you suck!" at strangers. But on Thursday, I will boo my TV and say to my wife "this fuckin' guy" several times. It's cathartic.

That's the job, sometimes. Kyrie has done nothing to make me think he can't handle or doesn't deserve that kind of casual hatred. It's a wonderful outlet and I won't feel bad about it in the slightest. He's well compensated.

(*Sports-fan-observer hate. When the game is over we don't have to like him, but just let him go home.)

 

[tbrown_01923]

I am guilty of hating on kyrie for every reason in this thread, particularly quitting on the team and the apparent jealousy he showed with the little success they had with him on the sidelines.

However, inspired by Coach Joe's take, and many of the comments here, I am going to try and let it go. I will mute any word salad interview he gives - that might be too much temptation for me to avoid the spiral of hating.

He's a good baller. shutting him down on the court will be more satisfying. Break their soul to win, lfg!

 

[Deathofthebambino]

I never really disliked Kyrie that much for the Celtics stuff--he tanked his way out of Boston but whatever, the team wasn't ready to contend with him anyway and in the long run it worked out fine for the Celtics.

Wasn't ready to contend?

In Kyrie's first season in Boston, the team went 55-27 and got the #2 seed, he played 60 games and then got hurt in late March, was supposed to be back 3-6 weeks, then for whatever reason, they had to go back in and do another procedure for a different issue and he was ruled out. That team lost in Game 7 in the ECF to Lebron. If Kyrie is there, who knows how that plays out, but being 1 game away from the NBA Finals without your best player is the definition of being ready to contend.

Then in his second year, they won 49 games, got the #4 seed, and the team may have actually done better if Kyrie had just fucking stayed home instead of doing what he did in the ECF Semis against the Bucks, when he decided to take 21 FGA's per game, shooting 35.6% from the field and 21.9% from deep, while playing defense like a bullfighter and finishing -57 over the last 4 games (all losses).

He then took his ball home, and the C's brought in Kemba, and they won 48 games, got the #3 seed, and went to game 6 in the ECF again the very next season.


That team with Kyrie was capable of winning it all. The problem is that Kyrie fucked them every which way, because that's who he is.

 

[NomarsFool]

I hate Kyrie, for reasons that others have mentioned, but I would have to say that I didn't see anything particularly objectionable in his statements. The only part I didn't like was his bit about "when the story comes out" which I hate - because it implies there is more to the story than we know (which I don't think is really correct) and I hate that kind of "if you knew what I knew, you'd know I'm right - but I'm not going to tell you what I know".

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

then got hurt in late March, was supposed to be back 3-6 weeks, then for whatever reason, they had to go back in and do another procedure for a different issue and he was ruled out.

Just FYI, Kyrie had an infection at the site where two screws were implanted in 2015; it was discovered about a month after his first surgery and there wasn't anything he could do about it.

The weird thing is that he scheduled surgery for a deviated septum at some point during the playoffs so he wasn't on the bench for G7 of the ECF.

Boston Celtics' Kyrie Irving missed Game 7 due to septum surgery | NBA.com

 

[Auger34]

I hate Kyrie, for reasons that others have mentioned, but I would have to say that I didn't see anything particularly objectionable in his statements. The only part I didn't like was his bit about "when the story comes out" which I hate - because it implies there is more to the story than we know (which I don't think is really correct) and I hate that kind of "if you knew what I knew, you'd know I'm right - but I'm not going to tell you what I know".

@Reverend nailed the Kyrie media stuff.

 

[tims4wins]

Who was it that used to write made up Kyrie quotes? Those were the best. Was it @lovegtm ?

 

[Auger34]

Wasn't ready to contend?

In Kyrie's first season in Boston, the team went 55-27 and got the #2 seed, he played 60 games and then got hurt in late March, was supposed to be back 3-6 weeks, then for whatever reason, they had to go back in and do another procedure for a different issue and he was ruled out. That team lost in Game 7 in the ECF to Lebron. If Kyrie is there, who knows how that plays out, but being 1 game away from the NBA Finals without your best player is the definition of being ready to contend.

Then in his second year, they won 49 games, got the #4 seed, and the team may have actually done better if Kyrie had just fucking stayed home instead of doing what he did in the ECF Semis against the Bucks, when he decided to take 21 FGA's per game, shooting 35.6% from the field and 21.9% from deep, while playing defense like a bullfighter and finishing -57 over the last 4 games (all losses).

He then took his ball home, and the C's brought in Kemba, and they won 48 games, got the #3 seed, and went to game 6 in the ECF again the very next season.


That team with Kyrie was capable of winning it all. The problem is that Kyrie fucked them every which way, because that's who he is.

IMO, it seemed like Kyrie was jealous of the success and praise that the young guys got. Instead of trying to lead or be a part of the team, he continually took subliminal shots at them through the media and was demonstrative towards them on the court. (The #2 "leader" of this group was probably Marcus Morris. Woof)

This will absolutely never be admitted by any of the parties involved, but I think at some point Kyrie realized he wasn't good enough to be the best player on a team and he wasn't having fun trying to "lead". His ego wouldn't have allowed him to play a back seat to the Jays so he sought out a situation where, for all intents and purposes, he would be the #2 guy but because he was teaming with his friends they would still talk about him as a 1. It was also with his contemporary so he wouldn't have to do to deflate his ego and "co-lead" with a younger player.

He's doing that in Dallas now but that's after his career was basically sank.

 

[lovegtm]

Who was it that used to write made up Kyrie quotes? Those were the best. Was it @lovegtm ?

It was me. He (unfortunately) has become too normal the past couple years for them to be funny anymore.

 

[Reverend]

This is the Deuce Tatum ignoring an emotionally needy Kyrie Irving content that you need.

View: https://twitter.com/bleacherreport/status/1369119958978883585

 

[luckiestman]

However, inspired by Coach Joe's take, and many of the comments here, I am going to try and let it go.

Fuck that

 

[Auger34]

He was absolutely putrid tonight. Missed some wide open 3’s that could have turned the momentum of the game. Tl

it was so beautiful to watch

 

[Mystic Merlin]

Fuck that

Yeah, sports ain’t no fun if it’s all Kumbaya, my lord

 

[SemperFidelisSox]

I guess you could say he came out flat.

 

[The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa]

View: https://twitter.com/bleacherreport/status/1369119958978883585

I think he looks more like Tatum.

 

[luckiestman]

I guess you could say he came out flat.

flat - fat = L

 

[JCizzle]

Just listening to Kyrie's postgame comments on ESPN. If JT or JB just gave that same press conference. Oh my God. Fire up the takes.

 

[Auger34]

Kyrie “I expected it to be a lot louder”

this guy can definitely not help himself

 

[Reverend]

@Reverend nailed the Kyrie media stuff.

https://x.com/lasvegasnbateam/status/1798916198597579252

(I’m 3 hours behind east coast time, just to be clear on the time stamp.)

 

[reggiecleveland]

I fear him too much to gloat after one game.

 

[Red Averages]

“Kyrie how do you feel about the game tonight”
^ first question tonight.


“just grateful for the experience to be able to play this game”

 

[OnWisc]

Kyrie “I expected it to be a lot louder”

this guy can definitely not help himself

He only had two assists tonight, so really can’t help his teammates either.

 

[8slim]

Which Finals game is Kyrie skipping to get his nose redone?

 

[Time to Mo Vaughn]

This is the Deuce Tatum ignoring an emotionally needy Kyrie Irving content that you need.

View: https://twitter.com/bleacherreport/status/1369119958978883585

He takes a lot of shit for his D, but Kyrie was right on his hip for almost that entire offensive series.

 

[tims4wins]

I am fascinated to see how his responds over the rest of the series.

 

[Shaky Walton]

Seeing Kyrie laughing and shaking his head last night made me hate him even more. Though I must admit that his postgame comments were mostly sensible and unobjectionable. And yes, this is only a one game gloat. But still, it’s a beautiful shot.

 

[bankshot1]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

 

[Reardon's Beard]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

Buy that guy a beer. Garden Psyops in full effect.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Buy that guy a beer. Garden Psyops in full effect.

Was that Stewart Berg? @BoSoxLady , wasn’t that the guy who was banned 20 years ago for harassing a player? My google fu skills aren’t working

 

[Shaky Walton]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

Any sense of when that happened?

And don’t just buy him a beer. Make sure he’s in place and ready to go with fresh material for game 2, and fly him to Dallas with a behind the bench spot for games 3 and 4.

 

[Shaky Walton]

I guess you could say he came out flat.

This hasn’t gotten enough love.

 

[bankshot1]

Any sense of when that happened?

And don’t just buy him a beer. Make sure he’s in place and ready to go with fresh material for game 2, and fly him to Dallas with a behind the bench spot for games 3 and 4.

My sense was that it was early, but don't recall Gorman being specific. Gorman was on T&H this AM, so his segment may be available for replay on the 98.5 website.

 

[NickEsasky]

Kyrie just wanted to celebrate National Donut Day a bit early by putting up a donut from 3 last night.

 

[Auger34]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

Surprising. I thought Kyrie had evolved beyond all of that? According to him at least

 

[m0ckduck]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

That's interesting. Simmons said something similar in today's podcast. He was near courtside for the game and said there was a noteworthy heckler whom Kyrie kept looking over at, making eye contact with, etc.

 

[Kliq]

It's very strange that people didn't realize that Kyrie has pretty much sucked against the Celtics since leaving Boston. He avoided playing in Boston for a long time after he left, and he pretty consistently underperforms when he plays the Celtics. The discussions about the Mavs maybe having the two best players in this series were comical. He'll probably get it going and score 30+ points in one game, but he's also likely to lay another egg like he did last night as well.

The "lost 11 straight" stat has been promoted so now people will talk about it, but nobody noticed when he had lost his last 10 to Boston?

 

[tims4wins]

It's very strange that people didn't realize that Kyrie has pretty much sucked against the Celtics since leaving Boston. He avoided playing in Boston for a long time after he left, and he pretty consistently underperforms when he plays the Celtics. The discussions about the Mavs maybe having the two best players in this series were comical. He'll probably get it going and score 30+ points in one game, but he's also likely to lay another egg like he did last night as well.

The "lost 11 straight" stat has been promoted so now people will talk about it, but nobody noticed when he had lost his last 10 to Boston?

I pulled this before the series. He hasn't gone off against them in a long while

3/1/24: 9-23, 1-7, 19 points, -15
1/22/24: 9-20, 3-7, 23 points, +0
2/1/23: 9-18, 1-7, 20 points, -31
1/12/23: 9-24, 3-11, 24 points, -11
12/4/22: 7-21, 1-5, 18 points, -16
3/6/22: 8-18, 2-6, 19 points, -5
Total: 51-124 (41.1%), 11-43 (25.6%), 20.5 ppg, -78 (-13.0/game)

 

[lars10]

It's very strange that people didn't realize that Kyrie has pretty much sucked against the Celtics since leaving Boston. He avoided playing in Boston for a long time after he left, and he pretty consistently underperforms when he plays the Celtics. The discussions about the Mavs maybe having the two best players in this series were comical. He'll probably get it going and score 30+ points in one game, but he's also likely to lay another egg like he did last night as well.

The "lost 11 straight" stat has been promoted so now people will talk about it, but nobody noticed when he had lost his last 10 to Boston?

In his post game interview he seemed a bit frustrated.. talked about how if he beat his man he was then going into two or three others that were helping.

He has to to a lot of work to beat the first defender.. must be tough knowing there’s always help. He was very complimentary of the Cs and said. So far they have my number..

 

[Montana Fan]

According to Mike Gorman a guy sitting in front of him last night was heckling KI and for about 3-4 minutes KI was pretty distracted and was more interested in telling the guy to fuck off than in balling.

Gorman must have been loving that shit! I recall Gorman’s story about riding in an elevator with Kyrie for 35 floors and the guy never looked at Mike nor spoke to Mike the whole ride. Gorman stated that in 2 seasons Kyrie spoke maybe 5 words to him. Was funny when Gorman wouldn’t say Kyrie or Irving during the first few broadcasts versus Kyrie’s Nets. Just called him by his number.

 

[JohnnyTheBone]

The "lost 11 straight" stat has been promoted so now people will talk about it, but nobody noticed when he had lost his last 10 to Boston?

Some of us were on it.

That same asshole has lost 10 straight to Boston since stomping on Lucky. Schadenfreude, indeed.

 

[Van Everyman]

Hélà

 

[Euclis20]

I don't know if Boston is in Kyrie's head, I think the reason for his struggles against this team are a lot simpler than that. Over the last 3 seasons, our backcourt has been some combination of Derrick White, Marcus Smart, Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown. I'm open to suggestions, but I can't imagine a team better equipped to defend Kyrie than that group. 3 guys with multiple all-defense teams and and a 4th that when fully engaged, is one of the best 1v1 perimeter defenders in the league. Kyrie struggles against Boston because Boston has had a large and diverse group of excellent guard defenders, I don't think the analysis has to get much deeper than that.

 

[fairlee76]

Hélà

Haha

I do love that he called out the Garden crowd for not being very loud. Good recipe going into a Sunday night game.

 

[Koufax]

I was at the game. For the first 20 minutes, it was as loud as I have ever heard it. It sounded like the old garden. After that, it was just loud, not crazy loud.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

I don't know if Boston is in Kyrie's head, I think the reason for his struggles against this team are a lot simpler than that. Over the last 3 seasons, our backcourt has been some combination of Derrick White, Marcus Smart, Jrue Holiday and Jaylen Brown. I'm open to suggestions, but I can't imagine a team better equipped to defend Kyrie than that group. 3 guys with multiple all-defense teams and and a 4th that when fully engaged, is one of the best 1v1 perimeter defenders in the league. Kyrie struggles against Boston because Boston has had a large and diverse group of excellent guard defenders, I don't think the analysis has to get much deeper than that.

You must be new here.

I was at the game. For the first 20 minutes, it was as loud as I have ever heard it. It sounded like the old garden. After that, it was just loud, not crazy loud.

Hard to be crazy loud when your team is up 28. Too much laughing involved.

 

[luckiestman]

I was at the game. For the first 20 minutes, it was as loud as I have ever heard it. It sounded like the old garden. After that, it was just loud, not crazy loud.

You have to understand that Kyrie mentioning that he thought the Garden wasn’t loud means it was in fact very loud.

 

[TomRicardo]

The shooting numbers are a bit of mirage (probably 4-6 pts less generated than expected), where Kyrie absolutely killed the Mavs was off ball on both defense and offense. If Kyrie can't move off ball, the Celtics are going to smoke the Mavs. The Celtics are not going got trapped in the gravity of him and Luka. They will play man, and if Tatum is playing defensive center, the lob will be taken away unless Kyrie starts aggressively cutting

 

[m0ckduck]

I was listening to the Lowe Post podcast where Zach and Brian Windhorst were saying, "No way Kyrie was intimidated by the Boston crowd! He did not seem intimidated at all!"

How about: he's not intimidated but he's just a bit distracted? Various media guys (Gorman, Simmons) reported that he seemed to be paying a lot of attention to hecklers. I generally trust pro athletes to tune this stuff out, but maybe KI is a slight exception. The point is, these things tend to get cast in black-and-white narratives of "is he afraid vs. or not afraid?" but maybe the crowd reaction is just incrementally chewing away at his focus to a degree that leads to two or three or four missed shots that he might normally hit. It doesn't take much...

 

[tims4wins]

Need a “heeeee-laaaaa” chant in game B. I’d say in all remaining home games but there ain’t gonna be no other home games.

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

Did anybody clip that incredible "pass" when he flubbed the ball into a backward roll out-of-bounds toward the backcourt?

Also bummed out that after the second-half sequence where he tripped over himself -- twice (maybe even 3 times?) -- and had a turnover, the Mavs quickly recovered and scored, ruining what would've been another all time keeper of a clip.