Kyrie Irving was seen before Friday night’s game walking the perimeter of the court and burning sage.
Kyrie is really saging the TD Garden pic.twitter.com/AscpNRQKlz
— ๐๐จ๐๐๐ ๐ธ. ๐๐ฆ๐๐๐ค (@KwaniALunis) December 18, 2020
Burning sage has historically been ritually used by Native Americans and other indigenous peoples to cleanse a space, among other reasons. Given Irving used to play at TD Garden, so maybe he just wanted to get any bad vibes he was getting from the arena up off him.
Irving has very strong indigenous roots himself. His mother was born into the Standing Rock Sioux tribe before she was adopted. He wasย later invited into the tribe and given the Lakota name Little Mountain, or โHelaโ in the Lakota language.
“It just comes from a lot of native tribes,” Irving said after the game. “Being able to sage, just cleanse the energy, make sure that we’re all balanced. When we come into this job, we come into this place, it’s not anything that I don’t do at home that I did today. I saged last game, and I plan to sage almost every game if the opposing team will allow me to.”
While it may have been unusual to see anyone sage an arena before a game, Irving’s Brooklyn Nets’ teammate Kevin Durant disagrees.
"Kyrie probably sages his room before he plays 2K … That's his thing, and we all respect him."
โKD to @CassidyHubbarth on Kyrie burning sage before the game pic.twitter.com/lojdGKZ09P
— ESPN (@espn) December 19, 2020
Irving has firmly cemented himself as one of the NBAโs most eccentric personalities. No word as to if this is going to be a one-time thing, considering Irving and the Nets will be back in Boston on Christmas day.
