Forget for a moment that 18,000 people screaming in unison at one person who is sometimes separated from them by only a few feet is something we consider normal, and consider the fact that by just bringing up the idea that, hey, maybe this shouldn’t be normal, Kyrie Irving engendered vitriol from more than just Celtics fans.
That’s what happened to Irving on Wednesday night, when his absence in his return to the TD Garden with the Brooklyn Nets didn’t stop fans from taunting him. At one point, a “Where is Kyrie?” chant broke out. Irving, who has missed the last seven games — including the Nets’ home win over the Celtics on Friday — with a shoulder injury, took to Instagram to respond:
None of what comes next is to excuse some of Irving’s most annoying, inconsiderate antics: not taking five minutes to autograph basketballs for charity, telling a production crew to photoshop his hat out of a team picture instead of just taking it off.