Boston Celtics: No, there isn’t a Kyrie Irving curse

A Boston Celtics-Kyrie Irving curse?

Please spare us with that ludicrous narrative. 

Yes, the C’s season is now over after dropping Game 5 to the Brooklyn Nets. But implying there is any sort of haunting spirits flying around the TD Garden inhibiting the team from achieving success is a byproduct of the shameful rivalry with the city of Boston that moronic “fans” started and Irving is fueling with his demonization of hundreds of thousands–if not millions–of basketball fans from the state of Massachusetts.

People don’t like being grouped in with troublemakers, but too many media outlets like making blanket statements to inspire more engagement. Watching the general public flame each other over social media helps their bottom line.

Right now, it’s trendy to pick on Beantown and the Boston Celtics, even though Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Kemba Walker, and Brad Stevens are some of the top class acts in the entire NBA. Bleacher Report’s A. Sherrod Blakely (someone whose opinions HH generally jells with) decided to conveniently ignore the entire 2020 Eastern Conference finals run in an effort to rewrite history to fit the narrative that there is a Kyrie curse.

Check out this knee-slapper of a quote from Blakely:

"Several factors have contributed to the Celtics’ struggles this season and overall inability to take that last, all-important step in their growth.But when you examine why there are far more questions than answers about this franchise, two words provide a simple summary:Kyrie Irving."

Blakely blames Irving for the departure of Gordon Hayward–which surely had nothing to do with his on-court fit with the wing-heavy rotation and wanting a bigger role–and talks about Irving taking a team to the next level…something he never did without LeBron James in Cleveland, or without Kevin Durant last season in Brooklyn before yet another injury, or with a Boston Celtics team that made the Eastern Conference finals in 2018 when he went down with an injury.

Just remember in the midst of all this hardwood hoopla that Irving’s Cs tenure was so disappointing that Brooklyn wasn’t sold on him unless Durant was coming with:

"“What Brooklyn would like to have is not just Kyrie Irving, but (have) a second star come in with him. Obviously, Kevin Durant is that player. If they don’t get a second star, it will be interesting to see if Brooklyn wants to have Kyrie Irving as a solo act. That didn’t go so great in Boston last year. So, we’ll see if Brooklyn is still following through on just Kyrie Irving. Because if they don’t take Kyrie Irving, they can just bring back D’Angelo Russell at a lower number, young player. But their focus with the Nets, let’s get two stars (and) try to get Kyrie Irving to go out and recruit KD for him to come together.”"

That original tweet was conveniently deleted, so a big shoutout to WEEI for keeping the receipts.

The Nets-Celtics matchup was a highly polarizing postseason series that lost enjoyment value once Irving decided to take the disgraceful actions of a few and use it to turn the entire NBA and media circus against the city of Boston.

Despite the result, I’d like to say good riddance to this story and that series, though it is surely to be revisited every time the New Jersey-born troublemaker makes his way back to Beantown.

Here’s to Irving once again dribbling himself into oblivion against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference semifinals and failing to see his team reach the heights the Boston Celtics did in 2020.

Maybe one day the Brooklyn Nets could break the Jason Kidd curse.