Dallas Basketball

'Kyrie Sucks!': Mavs Star Takes High Road After Celtics Fans' Distasteful Chant

The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Boston Celtics in blowout fashion on Friday night, and unsurprisingly, the TD Garden crowd still had hard feelings toward star point guard Kyrie Irving.

Dalton Trigg

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Three things are certain in this life: death, taxes, and apparently, Boston Celtics fans holding a grudge against Dallas Mavericks star point guard Kyrie Irving.

During Friday's matchup between the Mavs and Celtics, which ended up being a 138-110 blowout win for Boston, the TD Garden crowd booed Irving every time he touched the ball throughout the night. That wasn't enough, though, as they also started loudly chanting "Kyrie sucks!" toward the end of the game.

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David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

In 37 minutes of action, Irving struggled against the Celtics, at least by his high standards, as he finished with 19 points on 9-23 shooting from the field and 1-7 from deep to go with four rebounds and two assists. Irving was a -15 on the night, but that wasn't really saying much, as every Maverick except for Dante Exum was a negative in the boxscore plus/minus.

In the past, Irving let the Boston crowd get to him, but on Friday, following the game, the eight-time All-Star took the high road on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Thank you for everything GOD," Irving said in his post. "I gotta stay poised and accept all the tests on this journey. The wins, the losses, and the emotional moments, are lessons to grow from. No matter what, I gotta keep persevering through the hate, the next generation is watching close."

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Boston Globe's Gary Washburn spoke with Irving about the way Celtics fans booed him on Friday, and he believes they "had a right" to do so.

"They have a right to boo," Irving said. "From my career record against them in the last few games, I haven’t won, so until I beat them, they have all the right to continue to boo. I think that’s what makes the theatrics of sports and competitive sports fun. Just gotta embrace it. It’s part of it.”

Irving has received ultimate peace of mind while being with the Mavs for over a year now, and his maturity and growth bode well for what could lie ahead for this team. With the potential the Mavs have shown, perhaps they can make a long enough postseason run to give Irving a chance to have the last laugh against the Celtics in June.

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Dalton Trigg
DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.

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