Kyrie Irving seemed to be distracted by an in-game shouting match with a fan, according to Mike Gorman
"I’ve never seen this. He had a running dialogue with a guy in the sixth row. He’s running up and down the court, and he’s yelling at this guy. It’s just crazy"
Celtics fans certainly didn’t shy away from trying to get under Kyrie Irving’s skin Thursday night during Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
They chanted “Kyrie sucks” early and often. They booed also him.
But one fan in particular seemed to catch Irving’s attention, according to longtime Celtics play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman, who recently retired from his role at NBC Sports Boston.
“Kyrie, who is now 0-11 against the Celtics (since stomping on the logo) by the way was really sad last night,” Gorman said during an appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Hardy. “He was very busy during the game. I’ve never seen this. He had a running dialogue with a guy in the sixth row. He’s running up and down the court, and he’s yelling at this guy. It’s just crazy.”
Gorman said the interaction happened for several minutes during the game and that it seemed to distract Irving. Irving had a rough game, shooting 6-for-19 from the field, including 0-for-5 from 3-point range.
“The guy kept on him,” Gorman continued. “And then Kyrie started looking at this guy and pointing at him and mouthing a variety of things at this guy. Next thing you know, the ball’s inbounds and Kyrie’s dealing with this guy. It went on for maybe two or three possessions.”
“One of the possessions, he made a couple moves, he couldn’t do anything and decided to turn around and decided to go back-and-forth with the guy again. It was crazy. I’ve never really seen that.”
Gorman said he was sitting about nine rows back from midcourt and the fan who went back and forth with Irving was about four rows back. Gorman said the amount of attention Irving gave the fan during the game was bizarre.
“Once he had his attention it was all you could see, and it wasn’t like it was during a timeout,” Gorman said. “You see that stuff all the time where somebody yells at somebody during a time out, but not while the game is in progress. And he just didn’t let it go.”
Irving said after the game that he needed to do a better job adjusting to the TD Garden atmosphere.
“Just grateful for the experience to get through Game 1,” Irving said. “You know, just a lot of emotions going into it. Just waiting for the opportunity to get out there and compete. You know, going against a great Celtics team. We just have to get this one out of the way.”
“We didn’t perform the way we would have wanted to tonight,” he added. “It starts with me just being able to get out there and get us settled. Got to take some accountability for just the communication, and just going out there and getting used to the way that the kind of environment was going to be.”
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