© Andrew Dieb-USA TODAY Sports
Kyrie Irving looking to play excited, “normalized” hoops in his return to Brooklyn
Ever since the 2023-24 season started, Nets fans seem to have already encircled Feb. 6 as it marks Kyrie Irving’s return to Brooklyn.
As much as the fanbase would love to anticipate and consider Tuesday's game as a highly important face-off between their beloved team and their former enigmatic star, Irving himself tends to treat it like just a normal regular season game.
And he wants everyone to adapt to this regard as well.
“I think we just gotta normalize—I don't know if it's just a fan thing or media thing, asking us how we feel about going back to our former teams,” Irving said about his forthcoming clash with the Nets in Brooklyn. “We're one big conglomerate. It's one league. Obviously, there's history there with certain teams. There's a competitive edge that you have going into these games playing against your former teams. It's not uncommon. It's been happening for years in the league, guys play their other teams.”
“But I'm just saying that let's just normalize the emotions that go into those games playing against your former team instead of making it such a big deal of like, ‘Are you ready for it?!’ It's another basketball game against a good team.”
A Hélà-va ride
What Irving is trying to propose in his upcoming Brooklyn homecoming makes sense, but it appears to be an absolute pipe dream in form just based on how his tenure as a Net turned out to be a roller coaster experience for the entire organization. Regardless of what he said, this won't just be the usual matchup that he's wishing for with the way Brooklyn fans perceive his return and the narratives that are now starting to boil.
Once Kai steps his foot onto the floor and his presence appears under the bright lights of the Barclays Center, Nets fans will once again be reminded of the traumatic memories that they compiled in the past 3 ½ seasons with the polarizing guard and the embattled arc that they witnessed in franchise's history.
From the head-scratching off-court antics and shenanigans he produced — his controversial COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and his infamous promotion of the Amazon link of “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America” that is filled with antisemitic tropes — Brooklyn star was subjected to the talk of the town not just in the entire NBA but also outside of the four corners of the court.
Meanwhile, his superteam formation with Kevin Durant and James Harden turned out to be perhaps the most miserable ever as their lofty dreams of a championship and league-wide conquest ended up as a massive failure — winning just a single postseason series back in the 2021-22 postseason.
Throughout his stay in Brooklyn, he only logged 143 regular-season game appearances. Just when the team needed him most in its contention plans, Irving was nonexistent, mainly due to injuries, suspensions, and league limitations.
Thrilled for the furious welcome
All of these complicated moments that the Nets have endured came to a relieving end exactly a year ago when they ultimately fulfilled Kyrie's demand to get traded, shipping him to the Dallas Mavericks for Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie and a bunch of draft capitals.
And this Tuesday night, time is ticking if his desired “normalized” encounter will materialize in front of the unforgetting Brooklyn crowd.
“Yeah, excitement because I get to play back in Barclays [Center]. But outside of that, it’s nothing deeper to look into, and I think we need to do a better job of that,” Irving added. “Not making it something else other than sports. Not saying you’re doing it, I just feel like the environment is created like that.
“What happens if you get booed there? … I think we just need to normalize, this is basketball. Fans are going to be fans. Some people are gonna love you. Some people are not gonna like you since you left. But it’s all part of our overall conglomerate as a league. That’s what makes it exciting. The fandom. The support. And just staying poised through the chaos.”
