Nick Kyrgios ecstatic after beloved Celtics start NBA Playoffs on rocking note with 2-0 lead over Orlando Magic

Nick Kyrgios has congratulated his beloved team, the Boston Celtics, after the team excelled at the start of the NBA playoffs. Kyrgios is a longstanding Celtics fan. He even said once that as a boy, he was as much interested in basketball as he was in tennis.

The Celtics took a 2-0 lead over the Orlando Magic despite being without their talisman, Jayson Tatum, who was sidelined with a wrist injury. Instead, Jaylen Brown took center stage and scored 36 points en route to a 109-100 victory in the best-of-seven series.

Nick Kyrgios posted an image of Boston Celtics stalwarts Brown and Kristaps Porziņģis to his Instagram account, and captioned the picture with a congratulatory message:

"@basketball forever"

Nick Kyrgios IG Story | Source: Instagram/@k1ngkyrg1os

Kyrgios' tennis career appears to be winding down. He returned to action after a series of injuries at the Brisbane International in January and promptly suffered a first-round loss to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. He was beaten by Jacob Fearnley in the first round of the Australian Open. He finally won a match at the Miami Open in March, but hasn't shared any plans to play since.

Nick Kyrgios' obsession with basketball began when he was very young

Pop-Up NBA Basketball Court Installed At Bondi Beach - Source: Getty

Nick Kyrgios has said that he was a basketball nut long before he started playing tennis. In 2016, he published a blog for the Players Tribune entitled "Why I Bleed Green" and explained how an Australian boy became so obsessed with an American basketball team:

"My love for the Boston Celtics came from video games. Back in 2006, when I was 11 years old, I got my first NBA Live game on PSP — that’s the PlayStation Portable if you’re not a big gamer. I was just starting to travel a lot for tennis all over Australia, and I needed a way to pass the time between tournaments."

Kyrgios went on to say that even as a top-level tennis player, basketball was never far from his mind. Even on the ATP tour, he would still use basketball analogies to assess his tennis opponents:

Everything in my brain always goes back to basketball. Everything is a basketball analogy. I’ll sit around with my mates and try to match people on tour with their NBA counterpart. Roger Federer? Oh, he’s Ray Allen, bro. So professional, day in, day out. He just gets the job done. He’s a Ray Allen for sure.”

It's unknown if Nick Kyrgios will be seen on a tennis court again. After his loss in Melbourne, he suggested that 2025 would probably be his last year as a singles player. He won the 2022 Australian Open doubles title, so it is possible he might remain playing as a doubles specialist.