Hilarious mishap as scorers forget Kyrie is a Celtic
Kyrie Irving's trade from Cleveland to Boston may have been the biggest story of the offseason but someone forgot to inform the scorers in the NBA season opener.
Irving shocked the Cavs after their runner-up finish in the last NBA season after requesting a trade away from LeBron James.
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His bombshell decision has dominated talk all off-season and a match-up against his former teammates for the first game of the new season left fans salivating.
The NBA likes to open its seasons with matchups like this, and the crowd at The Q in Cleveland did not disappoint when they saw Irving once more.
While there didn't appear to be any bad blood between Irving and LeBron, the Cavs supporters were quick to boo their former star as soon as he touched the ball.
WARNING: The videos below contain graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing.
As fate decreed, the Celtics won the tip-off and Kyrie handled the ball for the first time, with jeers ringing from the grandstand as he scored the first bucket of the new season.
Proving that old habits do indeed die hard, the scoreboard on TNT's telecast signalled that the Cavs had taken an early 2-0 lead - instead of the Celtics.
Whoops.
Presumably, someone eventually got in the ears of the scorers to inform them of the embarrassing gaffe.
The boos that punctuated the early exchanges in the match were quickly replaced by groans and grimaces, following a sickening injury to Boston's Gordon Hayward.
Another of the Celtics' off-season signings, Hayward climbed high for an alley-oop pass from Irving midway through the first quarter, when disaster struck.
Hayward collided in the air with James and crashed to the floor on his left leg, bending it back in a sickening fashion.
"My thoughts and prayers go out to Gordon," James said
"It was a pretty gruesome injury."
A hush fell over Cleveland's home arena as players grimaced, including the Celtics' Australian big man Aron Baynes, as Hayward winced on the floor and team doctors set the foot back in place.
The Celtics led 12-9 when Hayward suffered the injury but appeared shell-shocked after seeing him taken from the court on a stretcher and the Cavaliers went on to take a 54-38 half-time lead.
The Celtics battled back to take the lead with one minute to go, but a James lay-up and a Kevin Love three-pointer gave the Cavs the lead and a final three-point attempt by Irving on the buzzer to force overtime missed.
Despite the bad blood leading into the game, it ended in a hug between Irving and James as the Cavs held on for a 102-99 win.
