Marcus Smart backs up Kyrie Irving on racist comments from Celtics’ fans

Marcus Smart has former Boston Celtics teammate Kyrie Irving‘s back over TD Garden racism.

Ahead of Game 3 between the Brooklyn Nets and the Boston Celtics, Marcus Smart defends his former teammate Kyrie Irving’s accusation of hearing racist comments commonplace at TD Garden.

As Brooklyn takes a 2-0 series lead into Boston on Friday night, Irving said publicly he hoped the fans would just stick to ball and not spout out racist comments. Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said he has never heard such comments in his 26 years associated with the organization. Naturally, Twitter ate Ainge alive over him being completely tone-deaf to this ongoing issue.

Though they play for rival teams now in the Atlantic Division, here is Smart sticking up for his former Boston teammate over this very important matter.

Boston Celtics: Marcus Smart supports Kyrie Irving’s comments on racist fans

Unfortunately, this has been a dark cloud hanging over the Celtics organization and Boston fans for generations. While there are other cities where professional sports teams play that have racist fans, Boston is sadly one of the cities when you think about the NBA. Obviously, it is an extreme minority of its fanbase who says disparaging things to players, but apparently, it still happens.

With the return of fans to arenas during the 2021 NBA Playoffs, we have seen several examples of fans being out of pocket. These incidents are not necessarily tied to racism, but we are only in the first round here and we have fans spitting on Trae Young and dumping a bucket of popcorn on an injured Russell Westbrook’s head. Let’s hope Celtics fans set a positive example on Friday.

For Smart to have his former teammate’s back ahead of a playoff game really speaks volumes.