Message to Boston Celtics fans: forget about Kyrie Irving

Getting over breakups is hard, particularly in the NBA. But Kemba Walker is proving to be the rebound Boston Celtics fans needed.

Look, I get it. Breakups are hard. And as far as NBA breakups go, Boston Celtics fans just went through a particularly nasty one with their former “face-of-the-franchise” Kyrie Irving.

The tension and animosity built up throughout the season, the dirty laundry was aired and by the time the clock struck 6pm on June 30th Irving was already brewing kombucha in a dilapidated studio apartment in Bed-Stuy and we were already on the rebound with a sophisticated older man in Kemba Walker.

It was a messy affair and both sides are probably in need of a strong drink and a couple months of “focusing on themselves.” But we as Celtics fans need to get over it. We need to get over the past that is Kyrie Irving. For the good of our fanbase, our players, and the very institution of Boston Celtics basketball, we need to get over it.

All weekend, Twitter and the media at large were aflame with Kyrie/Kemba comparisons. Emotional Celtics fans could be found replying in all-cap fashion to Nets highlights, and general malcontent was felt throughout the fanbase.

Frankly, It was flat out sad to see. But breakups are a process, and right now we as a collective fanbase are somewhere between ‘denial’ and ‘crying and Inhaling a Tub of Ben and Jerry’s While Watching Flat Earth Conspiracy Videos.’

Much like a real life break up, it’s difficult to frame things outside of the context of the person you broke up with. You had so many memories, some fond and some not, that serve as the prism through which you interpret that time of your life. For the past two years or so, most Boston Celtics talk was framed around Kyrie Irving, and understandably so.

Whether it was processing Danny Ainge‘s decision to trade away our beloved short king Isaiah Thomas, Gordon Hayward‘s horrible Injury, the ascension of weird Celtics Twitter, or our memorable 2018 run to the Eastern Conference finals, it’s impossible to frame any of these cataclysmic events without Kyrie Irving serving as the backdrop. He’s not only the best talent we’ve had come grace the green & white in quite some time, but was perhaps the largest personality. To many, it was seen as a match made in heaven.

We were quickly both enamored and confused by his interactions with the media, simultaneously retching at and egging on his bizarre behavior. The point guard fully embraced his enigmatic and mercurial personality, mimicking his YouTube addled, meta-ironic diatribes on the nature of government and his feelings on the shape of our planet.

His unbelievable on-court performance allowed us to dismiss it as galaxy-brain-level manipulation of a media machine he wanted no part of, as a prototype for the new Woke Superstar, or as someone who simply just wanted to “play ball.” In short, he quickly became the center of gravity for anything and everything Celtics related both serious and otherwise. We evolved into Stage five clingers.

This, in turn, made the breakup feel that much more acrimonious; that much more like a betrayal. We all felt like this was going to be forever, Kyrie included. I genuinely believe that he truly meant it when he said he wanted his number hoisted into the rafters alongside Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Paul Pierce and that balloon from Lady Gaga’s 2011 Monster tour. But then reality happened.

Things went sideways, as they generally do. I’m confident we will never get the full story of what happened last season, but Irving recently came out and talked frankly about how he struggled with the death of his grandfather throughout the season, which we can all sympathize with. Pile that on the burden of leading a young team in a new city with mega high expectations. A team who a had already proved they could win without him. Needless to say, it was  a combustible and delicate situation, and it seemed to play out as such.

I don’t buy into the spin that he chose Brooklyn as his “homecoming” considering it’s about a two hour train ride to suburban New Jersey where he grew up. But I can totally understand the desire to start over, and Brooklyn is about as clean a slate as you can get as far as NBA history is concerned.

Their biggest claims to fame since moving to Brooklyn in 2012 are the Great Swindle of 2013 and those unbelievable Coogi jerseys they wear a couple times a year. Even beyond basketball, New York City has always been a symbol of opportunity and tabula rasa. Whether it was your college roommate who bleached their hair and joined a noise band or your great-grandfather emigrating across the Atlantic to land at Ellis Island, moving to NYC in your mid-twenties is a tried and true cure-all for the dreaded quarter life crisis.

So where does that leave us as Boston Celtics fans? We just got an All-NBA point guard in Kemba Walker (ironically an actual NYC native), and it’s unfair to compare everything he does to that of Irving, who is undoubtedly a generational talent. Since a rough debut performance against the Philadelphia 76ers — that was contrasted against Kyrie’s 50 point outburst against the Minnesota Timberwolves — Walker has been as good as advertised.

It almost feels like a large chunk of our dialogue as fans and in the media is stuck comparing our current reality to this fantastical alternate universe where Irving never left, Al Horford stuck around and Donald Duck is playing power forward averaging 12 & 10. We as a fanbase are like your obnoxious friend who never shuts up about their ex, who will bring them up totally unprompted and ask leading questions such as “hey… so how is (INSERT EX’S NAME) doing?” Think about how annoying and sad that person is.

That’s us right now!

We need to be better. We have an exciting team full of beefcakes and extremely cool dude and flat out good players. Boston Celtics fans, I implore you, let Kyrie Irving go. Remove him from your vocabulary. Erase all those old Instagram posts. Delete his number. Mute him on Twitter.

Whatever you need to do to get Kyrie Irving out of your head, do it! As a writer and a fan, I promise on all that is green and good that this is the last time I will mention K**** I***** for the remainder of the season!