Update 12/19/2020 1:14pm:
During the Nets pre-season game, Kyrie Irving was seen burning sage while walking around the court. He noted that he wanted to do away with impure and “dirty” thoughts, and now the clip of him burning sage went viral. Since then, Irving responded to the attention from the video.
Irving said, “It comes from a lot of native tribes, being able to sage. Just cleanse the energy. Make sure that we're all balanced and that when we come into this job and this place, it's not anything that I don't do at home that I did today. You know I saged last game and I plan to sage almost every game if the opposing team will allow me." Take a look above.
source: ESPN
Original 12/18/2020 8:14pm:
Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics ended their working relationship on terrible terms during the summer of 2019. That isn't lost on Irving, who is returning to the TD Garden as a member of the Brooklyn Nets and wants to purify what to him is a putrid atmosphere.
Before tip-off, Irving was seen burning sage as he walked around the court. However, while this display of spirituality will be framed as vapid performativity, Irving's mother traces her roots back to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. For Irving, in the tradition of his Lakota roots, the sage is considered the "cleanest" herb used to do away with "dirty" and impure thoughts.
However, this will give people like Charles Barkley more material to slam Irving over and his perceived eccentric intellectualism.
Source: cbssports.com
