Kyrie Irving said he initially struggled in Boston with “figuring out how I'm going to be a great player here while winning championships and also leading a team and selflessly joining the Celtics' organization or the cult that they have here.”
“That's what they expect you to do as a player,” Irving said. “They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics' pride, buy into everything Celtics. And if you don't, then you'll be outed. I'm one of the people that's on the outs (laughing). I'm perfectly fine with that, you know what I mean. I did it to myself. They don't welcome me with a warm embrace, even though I know a lot of people in the organization and I'm friends still with some of them.”
At least he has the self awareness to know he did this to himself…
by SultanRaikage
41 Comments
Cult lmao
Sometimes hard to hate this guy when he shits on Celtics fans more than me
I think top-3 cults in the NBA are Miami (clear #1), San Antonio and Boston.
Lakers fans are, of course, rabid, but the organization itself allows star players to sift in and out and regularly throws away legends “like a piece of trash” (Jerry West’s words)
I think buying into whatever the team’s culture and history is and figuring out how to achieve certain standards is pretty par for the course no?
I at least agree that he certainly struggled with leading the Celtics and being selfless
I’ll believe it’s cult when Duece gets on the payroll somehow
selflessly is so funny. bro you were getting paid millions of dollars to play basketball
He thought guarding Giannis would make him a great player
*“They asked me to put the team first and buy into the team culture, and I said fuck that noise and went to Brooklyn where I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted”*
He’s ‘on the outs’ because of what he did.
Most people wanted him to stay, he promised to stay, but then he left.
So, why should people in Boston be nice to him? He only played 75% of a whopping two seasons, and 9 playoff games. Not like he left a legacy.
“Why don’t they welcome me with a warm embrace?”
Stomps on the logo
Kyrie is the one guy who can insult Boston and make me side with Boston
yeah, god forbid you try and buy into a winning culture
Brother you left after one year. You didn’t “initially” struggle, you just struggled.
That being said, I imagine the Celtics can be a hard organization to join. I’m glad he’s found a place where he feels he fits.
I hate Boston but I hate Kyrie more.
Yeah, calling us a cult really sounds like he’s contrite about his Boston experience. Punk ass bitch.
fans are so in his head.
It’s funny when Cult of Kyrie members were the ones who showed up in front of the arena in Brooklyn.
You’re right, we didn’t embrace him when [he was doing this](https://youtu.be/wKljzw7CGnI?si=MBO0nO_qhuwmkwAG&t=30s)
This was after his first year here.
Saying we didn’t welcome him with a warm embrace is false, evidenced by the video I linked.
What made Boston flip on him was the way he gave up against Milwaukee in the 2019 playoffs, didn’t take accountability, and went back on his word here.
Even after all that, he could have just came out after the fact and said “look, my grandfather died, my knee wasn’t right, I wasn’t happy in Boston, I wasn’t in a good place and needed to go home to Brooklyn. I know I didn’t deliver on the promises I made but I wasn’t happy playing in Boston and needed to move on. I wasn’t going to get back to where I needed staying in Boston”
And mostly everyone would forgive him.
Instead he chose to come back to Boston and step on the logo as a “fuck you” after not taking accountability. There’s a reason he’s more of a villain to Boston than Horford was when he left to Philadelphia in free agency.
Edit: I think I misinterpreted the quote. He means we don’t welcome him back now after the fact. Well yeah, no kidding lol
Im just going to say that any Celtics fan that hates Kyrie because he “left in free agency when he said hed resign” is a casual.
When Boston got waxed by the Bucks in 2019 when Kyrie went 8-22 in G3 and said something along the lines of “he would never shoot that poorly again”and then goes 7-22 in G4, and then 6-21 in G5.”. Pretty much all of us were sick of him.
Anyone that parrots the “Kyrie left us! Fuck him!” Narrative is a moronic casual, we wanted him gone and so did he. You can hate him for the logo stomp, the weird witchcraft shit he did burning that incense, or from the 2022 first round series but after 2019 Boston didnt necessarily welcome him back in open arms.
I mean… he didn’t struggle initially! We started 16-2 with a 16 game win streak!
Even with the injuries, that first season was awesome. Problem was later
I feel like Kyrie has always felt above buying into any organization or belief system, unless nobody expects him to. Like my teenager, who will very soon grow out of this stage before he’s half of Kyrie’s age.
It’s truly a miracle LeBron was able to keep this guy quiet for as long as he did. Winning a chip with Kyrie as your running mate is truly impressive.
“Our cults didn’t see third eye to third eye”
Him and Aaron Rodgers’ faux intellectualism is one of the most grating public persona traits. They’re unreachable and uncorrectable within their own little minds and world.
He seems pretty experienced getting into cults. I’m shocked it didn’t work out.
I love how he just keeps digging himself deeper anytime he speaks on this subject, true greatness.
F Boston
F Kyrie harder
The negative energy he gets from Celtics fans legit still bothers him. It’s fascinating
Self awareness?
He’s literally saying he was in the right for refusing to buy into a team culture
It honestly sounds like he thinks the Mavs is built around him
A Black Israelite accusing someone else of being in a cult.
Takes one to know one, I guess
If y’all can’t see through this manipulative ass nice guy act when he’s trying to paint himself as “mature” while still calling us a cult I don’t think I can help you.
This dude called our entire team losers and then left after legitimately NOT EVEN TRYING to win playoff games.
I think everyone should have moved on from his time here, its been long enough, but nobody should respect or sympathize with what he did
I’m of the opinion that he didn’t like that the Celtics got so far with him on the sidelines and felt that he wouldn’t get credit even if they did win it all the next year.
I’m glad Tatum will humiliate this smug prick again
Yeah, he prefers anti-Semitic cults like the Black Israelites
Just when you start to appreciate his immense talent and gifts, he opens his mouth and says something horribly stupid.
Watching him play is fun, but he’s just such an asshole.
No the problem was Kyrie is a narcissist and when he got injured and JT as a rookie took the Celtics to one game away from the NBA finals he became insecure. The spotlight wasn’t on Kyrie anymore, it was on JT and JB. He soured almost instantly and made everybody’s life miserable on that team. To the point where Al Horford and Jaylen Brown disliked him very much according to reports.
He was immature and selfish. So glad he’s gone. Hey Kyrie, kiss LUCKY goodbye one more time when the confetti comes down Monday night.
This is an insane quote wtf. Buying into the culture which is focused on the team and winning is a cult? We were happy when he got here and happy when he said he wanted to stay. We were mad cause halfway through the season he said fuck this team and left.
Dude said team work and buying in is cultish. Cmon man.. It’s a professional basketball team that paid you millions of dollars, not the Chinese communist party.
Won one game and starts saying dumb shit again, I for one am stunned
How do people actually like this guy?
Certified clown.