A few former Celtics vocalized frustration over how Kyrie Irving departed the TD Garden floor Sunday night.
But Kendrick Perkins, who played seven-plus seasons in Boston, could not care any less about it.
Irving appeared to intentionally stomp on the Celtics’ center-court logo following the Nets’ Game 4 win. The point guard’s actions drew the ire of Cedric Maxwell, Kevin Garnett and Glen Davis, all of whom expressed such feelings on social media.
If you ask Perkins, however, Irving did not do anything wrong.
“First of all, I want to say you know I love my brothers KG and Big Baby and I love my Celtic nation. But I’m gonna say this: I don’t give a damn if Kyrie Irving dropped it like it was hot on the damn logo,” Perkins said Tuesday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “At the end of the day, look, you cannot tell a player how to celebrate. He didn’t hurt nobody, OK? This game is built off emotions. Excuse me, the last time I checked, wasn’t the fans booing Kyrie? Wasn’t the fans sitting up there yelling ‘(Expletive), you, Kyrie’? And Kyrie went out in Game 4 and almost had a 40-piece wing dinner and grabbed 10 biscuits, meaning he grabbed 11 rebounds in that game. So, at the end of the day, he was playing with a lot of emotions. They disrespected Kyrie the entire game. You cannot have it both days. You can’t dish it out and not be willing to accept it.
“So it don’t bother me that Kyrie did what he did. He had the right to do whatever the hell he wanted to do after having a performance like he did. So, to Celtics fans, my brother KG, Big Baby, I love you all, but y’all got to get out your feelings. If he would’ve stood on the damn scorer’s table I wouldn’t have give a damn because Kyrie did what he was supposed to do in a hostile environment. He handled his business and now you just have to move on. Telling me about a damn Lucky logo, the same floor they pulled up the night before, the same floor that they could buff out if it had scuff marks in it. I don’t want to hear that.”
Irving and the Nets can finish off the Celtics with a win Tuesday night at Barclays Center.
