Kyrie Irving plans to ‘breathe through’ Celtics fans’ vitriol at NBA Finals
NY Post
BOSTON — Clearly at a better place with his game and comfort than those disastrous seasons in Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving says he’ll have a meditative approach to the hostility that awaits from the Celtics crowd in Thursday’s Game 1 of the Finals.
“You just got to breathe through it,” Irving said. “To all the [younger players] out there that are dealing with some of the crowd reactions, what they’re saying to you, you have to breathe, realize that is not as hostile as you think it is. Don’t overthink it.”
It was different during those Nets seasons, which immediately followed Irving ditching Boston in free agency.
Back then, Irving provoked the Beantown crowd by stepping on the midcourt leprechaun, lighting sage around the sidelines, throwing up a middle finger at a fan and suggesting Boston’s racism as a factor.
Time may have softened some of the anger, but there’s little doubt Irving will be Public Enemy No. 1 at TD Garden.
He plans to weaponize the vitriol.
Aaron Judge had an Opening Day negotiating deadline in 2022 when he was coming up on the final year of his contract before free-agent eligibility, and that seems to have worked out just fine for No. 99 — perhaps the first time ever in a hockey column that numeral does not refer to Wayne Gretzky — and the Yankees.