I can’t even give my father a proper gift. Every single Father’s Day means so much to me. I’m so close to him. He’s my big brother, but also my father.
“Crazy Horse dreamed and went into the world where there is nothing but the spirits of all things. That is the real world that is behind this one, and everything we see here is something like a shadow from that one.”
― Black Elk, Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux
BOSTON — Kyrie Irving (Standing Rock Sioux Tribe), star point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, plans to smudge NBA courts he plays on this season.
Irving went on to score 17 points in the preseason win. The regular season starts back up again Tuesday.
The NBA champion and six-time all-star smudged the basketball court at TD Garden in Boston ahead of a game against the Celtics
Kyrie is back in Boston, burning sage before the Nets face the Celtics:
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 18, 2020
(via @NBCSCeltics)pic.twitter.com/BldhxMhh2Y
“It just comes from a lot of Native tribes,” Irving told reporters. “Just cleanse the energy, want to make sure that we’re all balanced. When we come into this place and we come into this job, it’s not anything that I don’t do at home.”
Irving, 28, said he would like to burn sage before every game in Brooklyn and on the road, “if the opposing team will allow me to.”
Irving’s mother Elizabeth Ann Larson, who died when he was 4, was a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Irving and his older sister were welcomed into the tribe in a 2018 ceremony; Irving was given the Lakota name Little Mountain by tribal elders.
“It’s for us to stay connected, and for us to feel great about going to work,” Irving said. “And for us to feel safe and provided for by our ancestors.”
Source Native News Online Staff
