Advertisement

Kyrie Irving hates Thanksgiving: 'I don't celebrate that s---'

Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving hates Thanksgiving, and won’t be celebrating on Thursday. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving hates Thanksgiving, and won’t be celebrating on Thursday. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

When millions of Americans sit down on Thursday afternoon to celebrate Thanksgiving, Kyrie Irving will not be one of them.

The Boston Celtics point guard doesn’t celebrate the holiday.

When leaving his postgame interview on Wednesday night after the Celtics’ 117-109 loss to the New York Knicks in Boston, someone wished him a “Happy Thanksgiving.”

Irving, clearly not a fan of the holiday, didn’t hold back.

“I don’t celebrate that s—,” Irving said. “F— Thanksgiving.”

While it may sound ridiculous to some, that mindset is nothing new for Irving, who has a history of hating holidays. Last December, he told a reporter that he doesn’t necessarily think of Christmas as a holiday.”

On the one hand, it’s hard to understand what somebody doesn’t like about a holiday where you get a day off of work and get to eat a huge meal. On the other, for Irving especially, it makes perfect sense.

Irving’s mother was born into the Standing Rock Sioux tribe before she was adopted, and he was given the Lakota name Little Mountain — or “Hela” in the Lakota language — by the tribe when he went to visit in North Dakota in August.

“There was a certain point in my life where I had come almost at a crossroads with my dad, my sister, my friends, my grandparents, and I had no idea kind of what direction to go into because I had lost the sense of a foundation,” Irving told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst in August. “Knowing my mom passed and left me such a powerful, empowering family such as Standing Rock … to be a part of it now, this is family for life.”

Many were taught that the first Thanksgiving was a time when the pilgrims and Native Americans came together in peace upon their arrival in North America. However thousands of Native Americans were killed due to disease brought over from Europe, and the time marked the start of the slaughter and future removal of the majority of Native Americans from the United States.

Today, many simply view the holiday as a time to get together with family and celebrate a meal. Irving recognized that in a tweet on Thursday morning. He also sent a tweet apologizing for using such strong language after Wednesday night’s game.

When (if) you do that on Thursday, enjoy it. But don’t forget why those like Irving aren’t celebrating, too.

More from Yahoo Sports:
Report: Attorney advises 76ers star to leave team over shoulder
Forced bet shows problem with Tiger-Phil match
After Smith injury, Redskins turn to ‘insurance package’
Chiefs’ Mahomes downplays confrontation with Rams’ Peters