One of the biggest story lines entering the 2024 NBA Finals has been the return of Kyrie Irving to the city of Boston. The severed relationship between the franchise and their former player has resulted in bad blood in recent years, which culminated when Irving seemed to stomp on “Lucky”, the Celtics’ logo in the middle of their home floor.
Kyrie Irving Is 0-11 Against Celtics Since The Logo Stomp
Kyrie Irving is now 0-11 against the Celtics since the series where he stomped on lucky the logo.
The curse continues… pic.twitter.com/Ve69OKCcYU
— CelticsUnite (@CelticsUnite18) June 7, 2024
Fans in Boston saw the move as disrespect, and have provided Irving with an even more hostile environment ever since the incident. And judging by Kyrie’s success against the Celtics over that span, something of a curse may have been placed on him at that moment.
It happened on May 30th, 2021. Irving’s 2-seeded Nets took a 3-1 series lead over the Celtics in the first round of that year’s playoffs, as he and Kevin Durant combined to score 81 points with the series shifting back to Brooklyn. Irving assumed that it would be the last time that he’d see the fans in Boston for the rest of the series, and gave a few not-so-subtle stomps on the team’s mid-court logo.
Mavericks Will Need A Quick Turn Around
DALLAS MAVERICKS VS. BOSTON CELTICS FOR THE NBA FINALS! 🏆
WHO YA GOT? 👀 pic.twitter.com/cJWy4OA6oS
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) May 31, 2024
He has found it difficult to defeat his old team ever since. Between playing games for the Nets and Mavericks, Irving is now 0-11 against the Celtics since the logo stomp. He has lost all 6 regular season matchups in the three years, and the Nets were swept out of the postseason by Boston in 2022, bringing the total amount of losses to 10. Add in Thursday night’s loss in Game 1, and it is now an 11-game losing streak for Irving.
Irving dropped 39 points in Game 1 of that 2022 series in Boston, but hasn’t fared well inside TD Garden since. In his 5 games in Boston since then, he is averaging just 16 points per game and is 4 for 26 (15.3%) from three-point range.
Kyrie Irving and the Mavericks could be in trouble if they don’t turn things around quickly. They were completely outplayed in Game 1 on Thursday night, with no one aside from Luka Dončić scoring more than 14 points, and their odds of winning the championship are all the way down to +310 after being at +190 before the start of the series.
