It’s been 293 days. That long, since Kyrie Irving stepped on the court at Barclays Center, played with his teammates on his home turf, got to salute the fans who buy his jersey and chant his name.
And so, when he walked through the bowels of the arena Sunday getting ready to play there for the first time in nearly a year, there was only one refrain that seemed appropriate. “Oh, it feels good to be home,” he told the cameras. And then, again: “Oh, it feels good to be home.”
It might have felt a lot better, however, if the Nets could have celebrated his return with a victory. After getting back to New York at 4 a.m. from their game in Miami Saturday, the Nets looked thoroughly gassed, relinquishing a double-digit lead and falling to the Hornets, 119-110, in front of 18,166 fans at Barclays Center. I was the biggest crowd there in Nets history.
