Kyrie Irving admits he had trouble fitting into the Celtics 'cult'

NBA

by Brian Fonseca

Kyrie Irving didn't play well in Boston.

But he has a chance to bounce back in Game 5 on Monday night.

The Celtics led the Mavericks 3-1 in the NBA Finals but missed an opportunity for a historic sweep, losing 122-84 and getting one more chance to exact revenge against the team Irving spoke fondly of before Game 5.

According to The Athletic, Irving moved from Cleveland to the Celtics in 2017 after accepting a transfer request, but admitted he struggled to fit in with the Celtics' culture.

He called it a “cult out here” and said he made a mistake because “you have to show respect here.”

Irving added that he struggled in his early years in Boston to “figure out” how to be a great player “while winning championships, leading a team and being selflessly part of the Celtics organization, or the cult that is here.”

“That's what they expect you to do as a player,” Irving said. “They expect you to seamlessly embrace the Celtics pride, the Celtics everything. And if you don't, you get kicked out. I was one of the guys that got kicked out (Laughs). I'm totally fine with that, you know what I mean? I did it myself. Even though I know a lot of people in the organization and I'm still friends with some of them, they didn't warm to me.”

Irving's tenure with the Celtics lasted just two seasons.

In the first game, he looked his usual self on the court, one of the great individual isolation players of his generation, arguably the best ball-handler of his era and a five-time All-Star in his then seven-year career.

In 2017-18, Irving suffered a knee injury in March and missed the rest of the season.

Led by rookie Jayson Tatum, second-year player Jaylen Brown, a hot-form Al Horford and a thriving Terry Rozier, the Celtics went into Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against LeBron James and the Cavaliers.

The 2018-19 season saw much-publicized divisions in the Celtics' locker room throughout the year, culminating in a disappointing loss to the Bucks in the second round of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Irving moved to the Nets the following offseason along with Kevin Durant and James Harden, but he's remained at the top of Boston's enemies list ever since, and that was evident in these Finals.

Irving scored just 28 points on 13-of-37 shooting in the first two Finals games in Boston, and was booed vociferously every time he touched the ball, while Celtic fans roared wildly after every mistake and turnover.

Irving bounced back after that, scoring 35 points in the Mavericks' Game 3 loss, then adding 21 points on 56 percent shooting in the blowout Game 4 win.