Kyrie Irving sees Celtics sweep as ‘motivation’ for upcoming Nets season

On The Boyz Night Twitch stream Sunday, Kyrie Irving talked about how the Celtics sweep of the Nets in the first round of the playoffs — “we got 4-0’d” — will serve a motivation for the team in the upcoming 2022-23 season.

“We got 4-0’d,” he said three times before saying he believed the sweep was meant to be.

“It was meant to happen like that,” Irving told KaiCenat, YourRage and Bruce Ray, “Motivation, bro. We need it. We needed that humbling experience, especially going against the Celtics. It was already built in to be that match-up. So we gonna see them again. We have to. They’re gonna be where they’re gonna be but those young’uns over in Boston, bro, I got to see them grow up. So to see them do what they did last year on the Finals stage, making it that far, I’m glad they had to go through us.”

The Celtics, of course, got to the NBA Finals against the Warriors, losing in six games. The sweep served as a launch point for a number of changes Brooklyn took over the course of the summer. Irving who had hoped for a near quarter-billion dollar contract wound up opting in to his final year of his Nets contract at $36.5 million. On June 30, three days after Irving opted in, Kevin Durant made a trade request. The saga didn’t end till Team Durant met in L.A. on August 22 and agreed to .

The Nets face the Celtics four times in the upcoming season, starting with December 4, a Sunday evening game at Barclays Center. They don’t get play in Boston until February 1.
Irving also spoke about his time in Boston. Both his parents went to Boston University.

“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,” said Irving. “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.”

Irving also said he intends to improve his defense and become a complete player this season.

“I get it up on both ends of the floor. I got be a complete player. Coming for different hardware this year, bro. I’ve been in the lab.”

• Nets needed ‘humbling’ Celtics experience: Kyrie Irving - Brian Lewis - Newsday