The leadup to NBA free agency can be quite exhausting for basketball fans.
Trying to keep up with the latest rumors on the Boston Celtics and Kemba Walker, or possible Jimmy Butler sign-and-trades and grumblings of Kawhi Leonard ditching the Toronto Raptors is tiring work, for sure. Occasionally, the rumor mill gives us a good laugh, like this Terry Rozier-Kyrie Irving report. But this mostly is a mental grind.
So let’s all just kick back for a second and enjoy this one.
According to an analysis of geo-tagged tweets done by sportsinsider.com, published by SFGate.com, Irving was “the most hated NBA player” in New England. Only Connecticut differed in opinion in the region.
Kevin Durant is second 'most hated' player in the NBA, according to fan tweets https://t.co/rrCKt3GHdl pic.twitter.com/NRjhrO8W5p
— SFGATE (@SFGate) June 27, 2019
*Pauses for laughter*
Irving came up short nationally, ringing in behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant, but third is a solid consolation for Celtics fans, no?
Boston fans seemingly grew tired of Irving more and more by the day, and the disdain only grew more once the Celtics bowed out of the NBA playoffs in the second round. Now, basically anything the 27-year-old does boils C’s fans’ blood.
It seems that Irving has played his last game in green, and could be replaced by Walker, which would cap perhaps the quickest downfall of a Boston star athlete of all-time.
