Boston Celtics fans were the talk of the NBA for much of last week, as their return in full throat at TD Garden with Kyrie Irving taking the floor with the Brooklyn Nets was highly anticipated. Much of that anticipation wasn’t for very great reasons, and after a Game 4 loss on Sunday night, we saw more unfortunate fan behavior from fans on Causeway Street.
Boston, sans Kemba Walker and Robert Williams, struggled to keep pace with a fully-optimized Nets team, falling further behind in the series after a 141-126 Game 4 loss at the Garden to put the Celtics on the brink of elimination. After the game, and after a week of discussions about racist and abusive behavior from fans in Boston and across the NBA, cameras caught a water bottle thrown at Irving’s head as he left the Garden floor.
Someone threw a water bottle at Kyrie's head. Clown. pic.twitter.com/Yd5Dn20SXd
— Talkin’ Nets (@TalkinNets) May 31, 2021
The bottle appears to have missed Irving, but both the TV broadcast and other Nets players and staff leaving the floor immediately took notice of the bottle and, hopefully, the person who threw it. Throwing anything at a player is grounds for an ejection from a venue at the very least, and given the attention Irving’s return to Boston after a tumultuous tenure with the Celtics, this is absolutely unacceptable.
