‘Can’t smoke out ghosts of Celtics past’: Kyrie Irving burns sage at TD Garden, fans put him on blast on social media

Kyrie Irving is truly a huge weirdo. Before taking his first dribble as a Brooklyn Net at TD Garden, the 28-year-old burned sage to purify the arena.

Irving signed with the Nets as a free agent last season, turning his back on the Celtics. The Cs had given up Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and a first round pick to trade for him. All of this investment eventually turned out to be a sunk cost for Boston.

Irving was having a personal best season 1 with the Celtics before a knee injury ruled him out at the end of the season. The Celtics made it to the Conference Finals and took LeBron to 7 games without him.

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The Cs regressed sharply the following season despite having Irving for the entire season. They never got going as a unit, and stuttered their way to 49 wins. After a first-round sweep of the Pacers, they were dumped unceremoniously out of the playoffs by Giannis and the Bucks.

Kyrie Irving burns sage on his return to the TD Garden

Irving appeared to perform a spiritual rite before engagin in on-court action at the TD Garden on his return as a Brooklyn Nets player. He’d returned to the arena last year too, in the presence of a crowd. Despite not being fit to play, he was met by a chorus of ‘F**k Kyrie’ by disgruntled Celtics fans.

Perhaps that reception spurred him to try and ‘cleanse the aura’ of the arena. In any event, the sight of watching a modern NBA player engage in this kind of rite is surprising to say the least. It should be noted, however, that Phil Jackson also did this in his team’s locker room.

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The reception wasn’t pretty.