As Kyrie Irving prepares to head to Boston for the NBA Finals in what will undoubtedly be a hostile environment, Vince Carter has some advice for the Dallas Mavericks guard based on personal experience.
Speaking on The VC Show Friday, Carter threw it back to his return to Toronto as a member of the New Jersey Nets after requesting to be traded from the Raptors.
“What (going back to Boston) is going to look like, sound like, feel like for (Irving) is what has intrigued me because I’ve been in that situation before, as a New Jersey Net going back to Toronto in the playoffs,” Carter said.
“He’s going to receive boos… but there’s no such thing as ‘oh these are the loudest boos I’ve ever heard’ — that’s BS because I was a part of the loudest boos ever.”
Carter and the Nets faced off against the Raptors in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2007, two seasons after the 2024 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee was shipped to New Jersey.
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The Nets went on to beat the Raptors in six games behind Carter, who was indeed booed heavily during the three games north of the border but averaged 25.0 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists on 43.4 percent shooting in the series.
“To take you into what that looks like and feels like. Excitement because you’re playing your old team and trying to gather yourself and not make it about you only,” Carter said of what it was like taking part in the series amidst the hostility. “This is a playoff game, so try not to get caught up in that, proving to a fan, arena, player on the other team. Moreso than doing what you’ve done to get there.”
The Nets went on to lose in the second round of the post-season in 2007, losing to Lebron James and the eventual Easton Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers in six games.
However, one of Carter’s teammates on those New Jersey squads was current Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd. And Carter thinks that will give Irving an advantage in battling the Boston crowds in the Finals, which begin Thursday.
“The comforting thing about what Kyrie is going through is there’s one guy on that team that has experienced that, that is Jason Kidd,” Carter said. “Jason Kidd was my teammate going into Toronto when all that was happening.
“So he understands that moment. He understands, as a player, what that’s like and what it was like for me and helping me be in the moment, but feeling confident that your teammates have your back and you’re not doing this alone.”
With the first two games of the Finals being played in Boston at TD Garden, Carter said that if he was Kidd, he wouldn’t run the first few plays through Irving to ease him into the atmosphere.
Irving, of course, was a member of the Celtics for two seasons before the now 32-year-old point guard left in free agency for the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2019.
Since then, the two sides have gone back and forth, with Irving having called Celtics fans “a scorned girlfriend,” stomping on the Boston logo at centre-court and flashing a middle finger to fans during a Nets-Celtics playoff game in 2022.
Boston fans have also thrown a water bottle at Irving and relentlessly booed each time he returns to the city.
During the Mavericks’ lone trip to Beantown during the 2023-24 season, Irving said: “They have a right to boo. From my career record against them in the last few games, I haven’t won so until I beat them, they have all the right to continue to boo. I think that’s what makes the theatrics of sports and competitive sports fun. Just gotta embrace it. It’s part of it.”
You can certainly bet that Celtics fans won’t let up as they cheer on their team as it tries to bring home the Larry O’Brien Trophy, but they have their work cut out for them if they want to top Toronto’s fans for “the loudest boos ever.”
