Kyrie reflects on Celts' tenure -- 'That wasn't a great reflection of who I am' - ESPN

DALLAS — As Kyrie Irving prepared for his third playoff series against the Celtics since departing Boston, this time in the NBA Finals, the 13-year veteran superstar reflected fondly on his brief time with the franchise and expressed regret about some of his previous reactions with the passionate fan base that has been hostile toward him.

Irving, who is unanimously considered by his Dallas Mavericks teammates to be the team's vocal leader, played two seasons for the Celtics before departing in free agency to join his friend Kevin Durant with the Brooklyn Nets during the 2019 offseason.

Irving's Nets twice faced the Celtics in the playoffs, eliminating Boston in five games in the 2021 first round and getting swept in the 2022 first round, which ended up being his final postseason appearance for Brooklyn. Some of those series' most memorable moments were interactions between angry Celtics fans and Irving, such as when a fan was arrested for throwing a water bottle at him after Brooklyn's Game 4 win in 2021 and when Irving was fined $50,000 for flashing his middle finger at fans during the Nets' Game 1 loss in 2022.

«I think I'm better at consolidating kind of the emotions now or being aware of what it's going to be like,» Irving said after the Mavericks' Monday practice. «We call it animosity, we call it hate, we call it, 'It's going to be hell in Boston.' I mean, there are real, live circumstances going on in the world that are bigger than the basketball, kind of the competitive side of things and answering those questions.

»But I will say last time in Boston, I don't think that was the best — not this regular season, but when we played in the playoffs and everyone saw me flip off the birds and kind of lose my s--- a