Yesterday, we saw the impact an atmosphere can have on playoff basketball in the NBA. The Boston Celtics hosted the Brooklyn Nets for Game 1 of their first-round series. Kyrie Irving, who has a pretty dicey relationship with his former team the Boston Celtics, was bombarded with many insults, jeers, and ridicule, and responded quite aggressively. He also said after the game that he would keep this same energy.
Charles Barkley responded to Kyrie Irving’s comments and the Celtic fan behavior on Inside The NBA. Barkley noted that most NBA fans are great, but some always cross the line. But he also told Irving not to pay attention to that, and put on a show against his team. Chuck then praised the Celtics and the Nets for putting on, what he called, one of the best NBA games in recent memory (2:08 onwards).
“I’ve always said this, 95% of the fans are amazing. 5%, you could take them out back and I’d beat the hell out of them. I’ve said that for 30 years. But that’s only 5%, most of the fans agree. But I don’t want to talk about this crap that he’s talking about. That was just one of the best basketball games I’ve seen in a long time. Everybody on that court can sleep good tonight. Because everybody competed, competed, competed. Fans are gonna say some things, that’s the nature of the beast.”
Kyrie Irving was heckled to a massive extent by Celtics fans. But he seemed to take it in his stride, even poking fun at them in a hilarious manner. This treatment for Kyrie from the Celtics is nothing new, considering what went down last year in the playoffs when one fan threw a water bottle at Irving.
If anything, all these insults will only further motivate Kyrie Irving to perform better and eliminate the Celtics from the playoffs. Irving was pivotal in the Nets defeating the Celtics last season in the playoffs, and he will have to step up once again in order to make that happen.
