CLEVELAND — Editor's note: the video in the player above is from a previous story.
This time last year, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kyrie Irving appeared to be on good terms.
But as of Monday, the same might not be able to be said for Irving and at least a few of the Cavs' fans.
Returning to Cleveland to face his former team with his current team, the Brooklyn Nets, Irving scored 27 points, recorded nine assists and grabbed seven rebounds in what was ultimately a 114-107 Cavs' win. Yet despite the seven-time All-Star's impressive stat line, perhaps his most noteworthy highlight of the afternoon came when he replied to a fan who was heckling him while sitting courtside at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
"I got y'all a championship and m-----f---ers still ungrateful," Irving can be seen saying on the viral clip.
Irving's reply was an obvious reference to his game-winning 3-point shot vs. the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals, which gave the Cavs' their first NBA title and the city of Cleveland its first major sports championship since 1964. In the time since, however, the 29-year-old has become a polarizing figure for Cavs fans, after requesting -- and receiving -- a trade from Cleveland following the 2016-17 NBA season.
But while Irving was booed by Cavs fans during his first game back as a member of the Boston Celtics, he received an ovation in Cleveland last January when his former team honored him with a tribute video.
After that game, Irving spoke fondly of his time in Cleveland, where he began his career after being selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
"I was drafted here and we had a few good pieces, you might say, and that's being generous," Irving said. "We were at the bottom and we had to start and work our way up. When [LeBron James] came back in my fourth year after killing it in Miami and doing what he was doing and he came and then [Kevin Love] came and just the ball got rolling really really quickly."