Kyrie Irving rebounded from Friday night’s struggles Sunday with a 39-point performance en route to a 141-126 win over the Celtics in Game 3. That was compared to just 15 points in game three.
His performance wasn’t why he was trending on Twitter Sunday night though.
After Irving stomped on the Celtics logo, a fan wearing a Kevin Garnett jersey tossed a water bottle at Irving as he was about two feet from the tunnel exiting the floor after the game.
“We have zero tolerance for violations of our guest code of conduct,” TD Garden spokeswoman Tricia McCorkle said. “And the guest is subject to a lifetime ban from TD Garden.”
The fan would receive a lifetime ban from TD Garden and would be arrested on the spot just minutes after he threw the bottle. He was later found to be a 21-year old named Cole Buckley and is facing assault charges the Boston PD said.
“It’s been that way in history in terms of entertainment and performers in sports for a long period of time, and just underlying racism and just treating people like they’re in a human zoo, throwing stuff at people, saying things,” Irving said after Sunday’s contest. “There’s a certain point where it gets to be too much.”
Nets star Kevin Durant posted 42 points in Brooklyn’s victory Sunday, and he was not proud of the incident either.
“We’re not animals,” he said. “We’re not in a circus. You coming to the game is not all about you as a fan. So have some respect for the game, have respect for these human beings, and have some respect for yourself. Your mother wouldn’t be proud of you throwing water bottles at players, or spitting at players, or tossing popcorn. So grow the f*** up and enjoy the game. It’s bigger than you.”
The Celtics were in the running for signing the star Thunder back in free agency of 2017, but KD chose to head to the Warriors and managed to win back-to-back championships in Oakland. He left the Warriors in free agency of 2019 to join the Nets, along with Irving who left the Celtics.
“We know how these people are in Boston, how passionate they are about Kyrie in particular,” Durant later said. “They are still upset about him, but that’s no reason for them to act childish.”
But that wasn’t what some were complaining about.
“So nobody gonna say anything about Kyrie stomping (on the logo)” former Celtic, Kevin Garnett came out saying on his Instagram story. “We just gonna act like we didn’t see that? ** is going on? You can’t do that. That’s not cool on no level. All of us need to be better fr (for real).”
If in fact, the fan did not throw the water bottle, Kyrie stomping on the logo probably would’ve been the reason his name was trending on Twitter. Many were upset about Kyrie’s actions.
The Celtics and Nets return to the Barclays Center for Game 5, as the Celtics look to avoid elimination.