Photo: Steven Ryan/Getty Images
Brooklyn Nets point guardKyrie Irvingis vowing to give heckling fans the “same energy” he receives from them.
During the game, videos on social media showed Irving giving Celtics fans themiddle fingeron twoseparate occasions. Another clip also showed himshouting obscenities at a hecklerwhile heading to the locker room. Irving played for the Celtics from 2017 to 2019 before joining the Nets.
“And it’s not every fan, I don’t want to attack every fan, every Boston fan. When people start yelling [vulgar words] and all this stuff, there’s only but so much you take as a competitor,” he continued. “We’re the ones expected to be docile and be humble, take a humble approach, f— that, it’s the playoffs. This is what it is.”
Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty
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Irving said the energy that he receives from Celtics fans is a “dark side” thathe should “embrace,“adding that he typically reacts to fans in different ways, but this is the first game where it’s been caught.
“If somebody’s gonna call me out of my name, I’mma look at them straight in the eyes and see if they’re really ‘bout it. Most of the time they’re not,” he said.
Irving has had several interactions with fans throughout the season. Earlier this month, he apologized to a fan he mistook for a heckler during the Nets game against the New York Knicks.
However, the man he spoke to was not the person that made the comment. Irving acknowledged his mistake during his postgame press conference, noting that the fan that did heckle him “wanted a reaction” and “got one.”
“I think I tapped the wrong person,” he confessed, viaClutchPoints. “So I apologize to the random guy that I tapped.”
The seven-time All-Star told reporters that he “didn’t mean to tap” the man he tapped, but said he was triggered when “somebody said something that” he didn’t like.
Kyrie Irving.NBAE/Getty
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In January, the NBA alsofined him $25,000"for directing obscene language toward a fan” during the Nets’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In the viral clip, a Cavaliers fan sitting courtside at the Jan. 17 game could be heard heckling Irving before the Nets star responded with, “Got y’all a championship and motherf—— still ungrateful.” Irving played for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011-2017, contributing to the 2016 NBA championship title and the franchise’sfirst win in 52 years.
source: people.com
