Kyrie Irving wants Celtics to show his Garden highlights, have fans move forward from his ‘Boston era’

Kyrie Irving has not received a warm welcome from Boston fans ever since going back on his preseason declaration on his plans to re-sign with the team in the summer of 2019.

Irving’s remarks about Boston and a stomp on the team’s center court logo during last year’s postseason series created plenty of controversies. However as Irving and the Nets set to prepare for a first round rematch with Boston starting Sunday at TD Garden, Irving is hoping everyone can feel more positively about his two years.

In his media availability with reporters on Friday, Irving addressed his hope about his relationship with Celtics fans instead of serving as a villain for the series.

“It’s been three years now,” Irving said. “Hopefully, probably by the fourth year or after this series, we can be done talking about the past time and what happened there. For me, I definitely don’t want to focus on anything other than what’s going on with our team. Don’t want to focus on the fans; don’t want to focus on any of the extra stuff outside of my control. The environment’s going to be the environment. I’m looking forward to it. It’s just going in there with a sharp focus, fearless attitude and just stay to our team principles, and just live with the results.

I just hope we can move past kind of my Boston era, and just reflect on some of the highlights I left at TD Garden that they can replay. And just move forward. New paradigm, baby.”

It is a curious stance by Irving on the heels of him reflecting on his constant boos during his last visit to the TD Garden in March.

“I know it’s going to be like that the rest of my career coming in here. It’s like the scorned girlfriend who wants an explanation on Why I left, but still hoping for a text back,” Irving said. “I’m just like, it was fun while it lasted.”

Irving will be entertaining unfamiliar territory upon arriving in Boston as an underdog in a first round series for the first time in his career for the No. 7 seed Nets.

While there will likely be no love lost between the Garden crowd and Irving during Game 1 on Sunday, current members of the Celtics hold no bad blood towards their former teammate.

“Off the court, me and Kyrie might have started off with a lot of bumps in the road,” Jaylen Brown told NBC Sports Boston on Thursday. “But as of lately, Kyrie is somebody that I’ve connected with. Somebody that I call a friend, a brother. Somebody that calls me to pick my brain at this point.

“It wasn’t like that when we played together. We bumped heads a lot. But it’s funny now in hindsight. Kyrie, he talks to me, hits me up all the time and our relationship has grown a lot since then.”

The Celtics face off against Irving and the Nets in Game 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.