Kyrie Irving can be a gracious victor after all.
The Brooklyn Nets point guard praised the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night after Brooklyn eliminated Boston from the 2021 NBA playoffs. Irving told reporters he’s “grateful” for the two seasons he spent in Boston and singled out two of his former teammates, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart, for individual praise.
“We want to give all the respect to those guys and the amount of work they put in as well,” Irving said in a video press conference, as seen in a video NBC Sports Boston. “We don’t want to disrespect them or anything they put forth in terms of their hard work.
“That boy Jayson Tatum, as I’ve said over the time that I played with him, has grown tremendously. (I’m) nothing short of proud of him, nothing short of proud of (Marcus) Smart, all the guys that have come in and gave us their competitive spirit.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity I had in Boston, grateful for a lot of the support that I had post-leaving there. Obviously, it wasn’t the easiest transition to deal with. There was a lot going on personally while I was there in Boston that a lot of people don’t know about. So to see the emotions that were lingering on for the past year and a half between that, I’m just glad it’s settled.
“… Like I said, (I have) nothing but respect for the players, the coaching staff over there in Boston. In terms of everything extracurricular in terms of the outside environment, you let that handle it itself.”
Irving starred for Nets during their five-game series against the Celtics. He also cemented himself as a Boston-sports villain in recent days, most notably by stomping on the Celtics’ logo at the center of the TD Garden parquet Sunday night following the Nets’ win in Game 4.
However, now that Irving has helped vanquished his former team, he has chosen to take the high road in his commentary about the Celtics.
Perhaps it’s for the best, as he and Brooklyn now must direct their focus toward the bigger challenges they’ll face en route to their NBA Finals goal.
