After the Boston Celtics’ 117-109 loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, C’s point guard Kyrie Irving provided his thoughts on the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday:
Per Clevis Murray of The Athletic, the remark came after someone in the locker room wished Irving a happy Thanksgiving.
The comment likely goes far deeper than frustration following a disappointing loss to the 5-14 Knicks, as Weiss alluded to in a follow-up tweet:
Kyrie Irving: “F**k Thanksgiving.”
(This is a real quote, reminder he was given the name Little Mountain by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe earlier this year)
Per Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, “Irving was given the Lakota name Little Mountain by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe” in a late-August ceremony. Asia Irving, Kyrie’s older sister, was also honored.
As Windhorst noted, “Irving’s mother, Elizabeth Larson, was a descendant of the Standing Rock Sioux but was adopted out as a small child. Irving, whose mother died when he was four, has known about his lineage and has recently starting embracing it publicly.”
While modern-day Thanksgiving is typically a time for family and friends to get together and share food and company, the historical roots of the holiday originate from a dark time in the Americas, when Native Americans suffered genocide at the hands of Pilgrims in the 17th century.
As Dennis Zotigh, a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, noted in 2016: “Many Natives particularly in the New England area remember this attempted genocide as a factual part of their history and are reminded each year during the modern Thanksgiving.”
Therefore, Irving’s comment isn’t surprising given the context of the situation.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
