Kevin Durant says it’s Kyrie Irving’s “thing” to burn sage before doing something; says he would burn sage before playing video games too.
Irving presumably has ‘bad blood’ with both the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This would be a fair assumption to make as the manner in which he departed from both teams can be characterized as someone going back on their word.
Irving promised to re-sign with the Celtics ahead of the 2018-19 season, ‘if they’d have him’. We all know what happened in the aftermath – the Cs stuttered all season long, and Irving ditched them to team up with KD. This was Kyrie’s first time playing at the TD Garden since he left the Celtics for the Nets last summer.
Kyrie Irving burns sage in the Celtics arena, Kevin Durant defends him
Before the preseason bout commenced, Kyrie walked around the Celtics arena and burned sage. He was then seen embracing his former teammates. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart, were all seen in high spirits around the 2016 champion.
The Nets steamrolled the Celtics, winning by over 20 points. After the game, Durant was asked about Kyrie burning sage in the arena. KD responded saying, “That’s his thing. Kyrie probably sages his room before he plays 2K at home.”
Kevin Durant on Kyrie Irving saging the arena before the game: “That’s his thing. Kyrie probably sages his room before he plays 2K at home.”
— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) December 19, 2020
Burning sage is a Native American ritual which symbolizes the removal of negativity from a certain arena. It is used to signal a fresh start/ chapter in one’s relationship with a certain entity.
Keeping this in mind, it does make sense as to why Kyrie would sage the arena. His somewhat rocky relationship with the Celtics prompted his departure. So doing this, for Kyrie, it would mean cleansing the past, and moving onto a better relationship with Boston.
