NEW YORK — If there’s something to unite basketball in New York City it’s stomping on the stupid leprechaun.
It was a great troll maneuver by Kyrie Irving because it fed into the irrational anger and pride the Boston fans feel about their beloved Celtics. That franchise, by the way, has captured just one championship in the last 36 years, or just a single Larry O’Brien trophy during the entire existence of Nintendo.
But nobody rests on their laurels quite like the Celtics. You can’t tell their fans that Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo managed just one title, not as they prepare for another inevitable 2008 reunion special or listen to yet another tale of those great green warriors.
Only Ray Allen moved on.
So Celtics fans predictably lost their minds last year when Irving scuffed his Nike on the grinning face of ‘Lucky’ the Leprechaun, a fictitious miniature character with a pipe who maybe finds pots of gold at the end of rainbows, or maybe hoards Lucky Charms cereal, or maybe he just pinches people who don’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.
How dare Irving deface a floorboard picture?
It’s unlikely Irving contemplated all this leprechaun nonsense before his stomp at TD Garden’s midcourt. But we know how the rest played out. Celtics fans, who were already enraged about Irving ditching the team in free agency and calling the supporters racist, clutched their green pearls and got nastier. One bozo threw a water bottle at Irving and was banned indefinitely from the arena, along with being charged with assault.
The Nets walloped the Celtics in four games, confirming that the leprechaun ran out of luck a long time ago. Irving later likened the behavior of Celtics fans to that of a “scorned girlfriend.”
“Just wants an explanation on why I left or still hoping for a text back,” Irving said. “It’s fun while it lasted.”
Now Irving is returning to Boston for another first-round series, less than a year after his leprechaun stomp, and he’s over the animosity.
“Bro, just let it go. I’ve moved on,” he said. “I’m in Brooklyn. It’s been three years. We’ve had enough of the back and forth.”
Of course, Celtics fans don’t forget. They have lots of memories of lucky leprechauns and titles from ancient times. Irving will be the enemy for Game 1 on Sunday, and the vitriol will reverberate around the arena.
Irving understands that. He’s just over it.
“I think you guys have enough in this league where guys go to different arenas, and no matter how many times you play there, the fans are going to treat them like whatever,” he said. “Whether they played there, whether they injured a player, whether something went back-and-forth with the crowd. We’ve seen it before. So just giving the energy to what the fans are doing, that’s not where my attention is.”
Irving has bigger motivations and legacy storylines at stake in these playoffs. His season has endured endless drama (mostly self-induced) and attention as a part-time player. The 30-year-old’s decision to reject the COVID-19 vaccination contributed to the Nets falling to the seventh seed, and now Irving’s success in the playoffs, whether he admits it or not, will serve as the final verdict for how his anti-vax stance impacted the Nets.
In the way, yet again, are the Celtics and their stupid leprechaun.
“All is fair in competition,” Irving said. “When emotions are running high, anything can happen. I think I just want to go in there with the poise and composure, and just not pay attention to any of the extra noise.”
