"They'll regret poking the bear" - Boston Celtics catches flak from NBA fans for trolling Kyrie Irving on jumbotron

Some fans warned the Boston Celtics for trolling Kyrie Irving on the jumbotron ahead of Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals. The Celtics continued their feud with Irving, who only had 12 points in the Dallas Mavericks' 107-89 loss in Game 1 last Thursday.

During the pregame shootarounds, the Celtics showed Irving's stats from Game 1, which was his second-lowest scoring game in the finals. His lowest-scoring game in the finals was in 2016, a Game 2 loss to the Golden State Warriors.

However, that might not be a good omen for the Celtics given that Irving and the Cleveland Cavaliers won that series after coming back from a 3-1 deficit.

The Boston Celtics didn't stop there since they also used Kyrie Irving's quote about TD Garden after Game 1 to get the crowd going for Game 2. It will be interesting to see if Celtics fans are going to boo Irving all night long.

While Celtics fans might be enjoying the trolling of Irving, some fans warned the franchise to stop mocking their former player or they might pay the price. The Dallas Mavericks are looking for motivation and might have gotten one ahead of Game 2:

"They'll regret poking the bear," one fan claimed.

"Career night for Kai incoming," another fan predicted.

"He bout to cook imma be honest lol," a fan commented.

Regardless of what some fans might think, the Celtics have had Kyrie Irving's number over the past few seasons. He has an 11-game losing streak against Boston, which doesn't faze some of his fans:

"All the signs pointing to Dallas for game 2. The script is in," a fan claimed.

"The boos would turn him to a beast tonight," another fan remarked.

"That will feed the generations when Kyrie wins the series 4-2. That's just bad karma," one fan commented.

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Kyrie Irving at peace in Dallas, admits not being himself in Boston

In an interview with The Athletic before Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Kyrie Irving admitted that he was not himself when he was with the Boston Celtics. Irving failed to make it work with his teammates after taking the death of his grandfather hard.

And when he left Boston, it just became a rivalry whenever he visited TD Garden. Irving knew he was not his "best self" when he dealt with a hostile Celtics fan base, which he even instigated a couple of years back by flipping the bird.

But now that he's in Dallas, Irving is at peace and might be the best version of himself on and off the court:

"I know sometimes in sports, it's literally about the end goal and result in what you accomplish, and that's one thing. But we're still human. At the end of the day, I wasn't my best self during that time. When I look back on it, I just see it as a time where I learned how to let go of things and learned how to talk through my emotions," Irving said.