Kyrie Irving on loss to Boston: 'We needed that humbling experience'

The Nets’ first-round sweep at the hands of Boston wasn’t just humbling. It was also motivating. At least according to Kyrie Irving, who said the playoff drubbing went down exactly how it was supposed to — and precisely how it needed to in order to drive the Nets this season. “Get ’em up. I’ve got to get them up on both ends of the floor. I’ve got to be a complete player. Coming for different hardware this year, bro. I’ve been in the lab crazy, since we got 4-0’d,” Irving said on “The Boyz Night Podcast,” before adding three times that the sweep occurred just how it should have. “It was meant to happen like that.” -via New York Post / September 20, 2022

“I had a good time in Boston, bro. I was going there since I was probably 6 years old to a college basketball camp at Boston University. I always had family there. I spent a lot of time there,” Irving said. “But when I played there, man I met my wife there and we settled down. So a lot of good memories. Just on the court, things didn’t work out as I would have liked.” -via New York Post / September 20, 2022

Appearing on a Twitch stream this week, the Brooklyn Nets guard Irving spoke on being swept by the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs last year. Irving called it “a humbling experience” but cautioned Boston that they would be seeing the Nets again. “It was meant to happen like that,” said Irving. “Motivation, bro. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built in to be that matchup. “We gonna see ’em again,” Irving added. “We gonna have to. They gonna be where they gonna be. But those young-uns over there in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them doing what they did last year, on the Finals stage, making it that far, I’m glad they had to go through us.” -via Larry Brown Sports / September 19, 2022