Events

Kyrie Irving and the Nets are scheduled for a visit to Boston

The former Celtics guard isn't eligible to play home games in Brooklyn because of his COVID vaccination status, but he has rejoined the Nets for road games.

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When it comes to Kyrie Irving, you can never be completely sure he’ll show up. For a wide (and recently widening) variety of reasons, through the first 10 and a half seasons of his NBA career, he’d played in 589 of a possible 856 regular-season games.

But if all goes according to plan, Irving will be making his return to Boston on March 6, when his Nets visit the Celtics for a nationally televised afternoon affair.

Irving isn’t allowed to play in Brooklyn because of his vaccination status, and for the first few months of the season he stayed away from the Nets entirely. That meant he missed the season’s first matchup between his current team and the one he scorned after a couple seasons. It also put him on course to miss both of the Nets-Celtics games at the Barclay’s Center in February (unless the team opted to exercise what seems to be a legal loophole).

However, Irving returned to the Nets for road games in early January, putting him on a course to come back to TD Garden for the first time since he stomped on the C’s Lucky logo as Brooklyn seized full command of last year’s playoff series between the sides. As he left the floor that night, a fan tossed a water bottle in his direction. Earlier that same week, Irving also made comments about the racial climate in Boston.

Suffice it to say, he’s not a particularly popular player with Celtics fans — but he is certainly an attraction. And a fantastically talented basketball player. So are his hall-of-fame-destined teammates, Kevin Durant and James Harden, although Durant’s ongoing recovery from an MCL sprain means his availability will be a question until closer to the contest.

Then again, so will Irving’s. As it always seems to be.