Kyrie Irving on TD Garden return in front of Boston Celtics fans: ‘Hopefully we can just keep it strictly basketball’

NEW YORK — It’s been two years since Kyrie Irving left the Celtics for the Nets. Between injuries, a pandemic, crowdless arenas or whatever other reason, Irving has yet to play in a game in front of Celtics fans at TD Garden.

That will change at 8:30 p.m. Friday at TD Garden when the Celtics and Nets meet for Game 3 of their first-round series. If the return goes as expected, Irving will hear plenty of boos and jeers.

“It’s not my first time being an opponent in Boston,” Irving said Tuesday. “I’m just looking forward to competing with my teammates and hopefully we can just keep it strictly basketball. There’s no belligerence or racism going on, subtle racism, or people yelling s— from the crowd.

“But even if it is, it’s part of the nature of the game and we’re just going to focus on what we can control.”

Irving already received some distaste from Boston fans last week, though he wasn’t actually in attendance. At the end of the play-in win over the Wizards, with the Celtics about to play the Irving-led Nets, the TD Garden crowd went with a chant mixed in with some profanity against Irving.

The Nets lead 2-0 over the Celtics after their blowout win Tuesday at Barclays Center. While Nets fans had plenty of positive chants for Irving in Brooklyn — “Kyrie’s home” or “you miss Kyrie” — for the first two games, it’ll be a different feel at TD Garden.

Irving played with the Celtics for two seasons, from 2017-19, after he was traded from Cleveland to Boston. C’s president Danny Ainge shipped beloved fan favorite and top-3 MVP finisher Isaiah Thomas, among other pieces, to the Cavs in the deal, acquiring the talented Irving.

It was an up-and-down two years for Irving in Boston. His first year was cut short by injuries, and while the Celtics were one win away from the NBA Finals that year, Irving didn’t suit up in the playoffs.

Before his second season, Irving said during a season tickets holder event he planned to re-sign with the team once his contract was up. But that next offseason, he teamed up with Kevin Durant to play for the Nets. Irving struggled in his final few games with the C’s, putting up poor shooting numbers in a second-round loss to the Bucks in five games.

While Celtics fans will boo and heckle Irving over the next two games, his former coach and teammates praised him prior to Game 1 of the first-round series. Celtics coach Brad Stevens said Irving is a “super special player with a really good heart,” adding he was “amazing” in his two seasons with the Celtics.

“We both went to Duke,” Jayson Tatum said of Irving last week. “At one point we had the same agent, so we had that connection. Obviously we played here together for two seasons and got to see his work ethic every day up close, in person. So that was pretty special to see just my first and second year in the league.”

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