Kyrie Irving’s tenure with the Celtics ended unceremoniously, but the Brooklyn Nets point guard recently reached out to Wyc Grousbeck.
The Kyrie Irving experiment didn’t work out for the Boston Celtics. The Brooklyn Nets are hoping last season was an anomaly.
Despite all the drama that surrounded Irving in Boston, the star point guard recently sent Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck a text that led to a nice exchange between the two.
“[Kyrie] just sent me a text the other day, out of the blue, and it was a really thoughtful and nice text, lengthy text,” Grousbeck said, via Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston. “We had a nice back and forth. He’s a good guy, he tried hard, he gave us two years, and we’re going to move forward.”
Despite the kind words from Grousbeck, the Boston fans won’t be holding back when Irving returns to TD Garden for the first time next season.
The NBA schedule hasn’t been released yet, but one of Irving’s teammates is already angling for a Christmas Day game in Boston. Spencer Dinwiddie recently said that he wants to play in a Garden on Christmas—Madison Square Garden or TD Garden.
Celtics fans are going to make sure that Irving hears the boos early and often when he returns. Boston came into last season as early favorites in the Eastern Conference. But locker-room dysfunction and inconsistent play resulted in a 49-33 record and a second-round flameout at the hands of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
As the Celtics’ best player, Irving bears his fair share of the responsibility for last season’s failures. Although it sounds like he and Grousbeck are on good terms, it would be unwise to expect Boston fans to feel the same way.
There should be a nice little Brooklyn-Boston rivalry over the next few years.