The star point guard left the Celtics in 2019.
The Nets’ Tuesday night win against the Cavaliers solidified their spot as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference and will now face the Celtics in the first round of the postseason.
The matchup will be a reunion of sorts. Nets star Kyrie Irving left Boston for Brooklyn and he’ll face some of his former teammates this upcoming series. Before Game 1, Celtics star Jayson Tatum addressed what he learned from Irving and shared what the star point guard has told him behind closed doors.
“Obviously, we’ve talked and there’s some things that he probably would’ve done differently, but I think that’s just a part of life,” he said. “Nobody’s perfect and you just gotta move on from it as you get older.”
Tatum also said that Irving helped him grow during his first two years in the NBA and that he “learned what to do and some things not to do.”
In 2017, Irving requested a trade from the Cavaliers and landed with the Celtics the same offseason that Tatum was drafted with the No. 3 pick. But he missed the entire 2018 postseason with an injury and Boston was bounced out of the second round of the playoffs in 2019. He departed for Brooklyn that summer in free agency.
There doesn’t appear to be any bad blood, but it’ll be a hard-fought first-round series for both teams. Tip-off in Boston is scheduled for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET.
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