It’s been a long time since the Kyrie Irving-Boston Celtics beef was a substantial story. Kyrie played for the Celtics six years ago at this point, and Boston has gone on to win a title without him … more specifically, by defeating him and the Dallas Mavericks in 2024.
Kyrie maintains a good relationship with guys like Jayson Tatum, and there doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between the players, if there ever was to begin with.
Many Celtics fans still despise Kyrie, however, which is what made Bleacher Report’s Grant Hughes choose Kyrie as Celtics fans’ “Most Hated Villain of the Century” in a new article. While Hughes mentioned some other candidates, Kyrie ultimately took the cake.
“To hear head coach Joe Mazzulla tell it, the biggest villains in Boston Celtics history are, in order: The Geneva Convention (because there are no fouls in war), positive affirmations and comfortable chairs,” Hughes wrote.
“Rick Pitino, who came aboard as coach and general manager in 1997, warrants more serious consideration, but he only lasted a year into the century. He seemed to have no idea how to run an NBA team, but he was very clear on who wasn’t walking through doors. The Celtics went 102-146 before he resigned in 2001.”
“That leaves Kyrie Irving, who forced his way out of Cleveland, pledged allegiance to the Celtics and promptly bounced to Brooklyn a few months later,” Hughes continued. “It’s safe to say that Boston fans still aren’t over it.”
Hughes’s timeline was a bit confusing, so it should be said here that Kyrie did spend two full seasons with the Celtics, in which he played 127 regular season games with averages of 24.1 points, 6.1 assists and 4.4 rebounds.
Injuries threw a wrench in Irving’s Celtics legacy, however, as he missed the entire postseason in his first campaign in green. The following year, Irving was active for the playoffs but underperformed during a 4-1 second-round loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, a series many fans believe Kyrie more or less gave up on before it was over.
It’s hard to disagree with Hughes’s selection here. Whether it’s warranted or not, Celtics fans definitely still dislike Kyrie Irving more than pretty much anyone else.
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