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BOSTON — Kyrie Irving knows what’s coming. He’s heard it before — and it got to him.
Boston Celtics fans have a special kind of venom when it comes to Irving, who once stood at center court in the TD Garden and said, “If you guys will have me back, I plan on re-signing here,” but a few months later bolted to join Kevin Durant in Brooklyn. When Irving returned the first time and heard the boos and jeering, he admits he did not handle it well, flipping off Celtics fans and stomping on the Lucky the Leprechaun logo at center court.
Just don’t expect it to rattle the more mature, calm Irving we have seen in Dallas.
“You just got to breathe through it…” Irving said about remaining calm in the face of the reception he will get. “There’s no fear out here, man. It’s basketball. The fans are going to say what they’re going to say. I appreciate them and their relationship they have to the game. But it’s about the players at the end of the day.”
Luka Doncic — who will hear it from the crowd as well — admitted the Garden can be a tough place to play.
“I think it’s very loud crowd. Everybody knows that. They been known for that,” Doncic said. “It’s hard to play in this place. The crowd is amazing for their team. All I got to say is we got to stay together. It’s us against them. We got to stay together.”
Doncic also played in louder, crazier environments than this before he was 18. Have you ever seen the crowds at a high-level European game?
“I remember it, it was quarterfinals of EuroLeague against Panathinaikos in Panathinaikos,” Doncic said of the wildest crowd he ever saw. “The crowd went crazy. They started winning 20-0.”
Celtics fans might also want to be careful about motivating Doncic. A fan did that in the front row of Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals in Minnesota — waiving a handkerchief at Doncic and calling him a crier — and Doncic took over the first quarter, scoring 20, and putting the game out of reach before the end of the first.
Boston fans will bring it in Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Thursday night, and the Celtics players will feed off it. Just don’t expect it to phase the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/boston-fans-let-irving-doncic-152144544.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-06-06 15:21:44
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