BOSTON — No time was wasted. As the lights dimmed and the player introduction video began to roll on the Jumbotron in TD Garden, the heckling began. The chants were loud, the booing was relentless and signs denouncing the Boston Celtics’ former star were abundant.
The target of the taunting — Kyrie Irving — was hundreds of miles away from TD Garden. Irving, who has missed the last seven games with a right shoulder impingement, did not make the trip to face his former team. The rest of the Brooklyn Nets’ players served as Irving’s proxies.
“Where is Kyrie?” Celtics fans chanted.
“Kyrie sucks!” they screeched nearly every time Jarrett Allen went to the free throw line.
“It was better than I thought,” Allen said. “They could’ve booed us every time we touched the ball. If Kyrie was here it probably would’ve been 10 times worse.”
In the fall of 2018, Irving told an arena full of Celtics fans that he intended to re-sign with Boston during his 2019 free agency. Instead, he would end up with the Brooklyn Nets alongside Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan. On Media Day in Brooklyn, Irving said that he meant it when he told fans he would resign. But then his grandfather died, basketball became less important to Irving and over time, the Celtics’ locker room grew fractured and chilly.
“I failed those guys,” Irving said in September. “In terms of me being a leader in that environment and bringing everyone together, I failed.”
It seems as though the Celtics organization has largely forgiven Irving. The franchise has stuck to diplomatic talking points when speaking about Irving’s tumultuous Celtics tenure. If they had retained Irving, Boston would not have signed Kemba Walker, who has quickly become a fan favorite and presided over the Celtics’ 13-4 start to the season — including Wednesday’s 121-110 win over the Nets.
Walker scored 39 points on 13-of-24 shooting, including 6-of-10 three pointers.
“I’ve said many times that I really enjoy Kyrie and wish him nothing but the best,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said before the game.
That nuance was unimportant on Wednesday. Outside the arena, fliers with the word “coward” stamped across Irving’s face were plastered on telephone poles. Another leaflet depicted Irving as the cowardly lion from the Wizard of Oz.
In the arena, fans held up signs that said “Kemba > Kyrie.” Another poster had Irving’s face superimposed over a photo of Where’s Waldo. Other fans had “Kanter” painted over where Irving’s name had been on a No. 11 jersey.
By the fourth quarter, “Kyrie sucks” chants were not reserved for the Nets. It became a rally cry when the Celtics shot free throws and during dead balls.
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