Nets guard Bruce Brown was born and bred in Boston. He grew up cheering for the Celtics, a native son in every way. He still loves Beantown and calls it his city.

Yet as Brown returned home for Friday’s first-round Game 3 at TD Garden — with his Nets enjoying a 2-0 series lead over the Celtics — he admitted he was subjected to the kind of racism, growing up in Boston, that teammate Kyrie Irving alluded to this week.

“When I was younger I experienced a few things for sure. I mean, it’s my city; you grow up and you try to get used to it, really not think about it too much,” Brown said. “I definitely in my high school days experienced a few things for sure. But it’s tough, you get through it. I try not to worry about it too much.”

The 24-year-old Brown was born in Boston, and grew up in Dorchester, just five miles from TD Garden, where Irving played Friday in front of Celtics fans for the first time since bolting Boston for Brooklyn in June 2019.

Irving — who spent two up-and-down years playing in Boston, and earned the ire of Celtics fans by proclaiming his intent to stay, then bolting for Brooklyn — said Tuesday night he hoped the focus could stay on basketball, and that the TD Garden fans would eschew any “belligerence” and “racism.”

Current Celtics Marcus Smart and Tristan Thompson backed up Irving’s assertions, saying they have heard racist abuse at TD Garden.

“Yeah, of course, definitely … I’ve definitely heard guys say some crazy stuff,” Thompson said.

“Personally being a Celtic, nobody has said anything racial to me. As a visitor, it’s a different story. But if they choose to use those kind of words to get a player’s attention that comes from their home training — or the lack of home training, as my mom would say.”

Smart recalled a female fan, with an Isaiah Thomas No. 4 Celtics jersey on and a child in tow, calling him the N-word right outside the arena.

“I’ve heard a couple of them,” Smart said. “It’s kind of sad and sickening because even though it’s an opposing team, we have guys on your home team that you’re saying these racial slurs and you’re expecting us to go out there and play for you.”

Brown confirmed he got a bitter taste of it growing up. He was a three-sport star for Wakefield Memorial High School, before transferring to Vermont Academy, and recalled racist abuse he suffered as a schoolboy.

“High school I was called a few names before. I was called a monkey before just because I was dating the opposite race at the time,” Brown said. “So it was it was tough at the time, but now it’s just like whatever.”

Brown was clear, nevertheless, how excited he was to be coming home, playing in TD Garden and seeing familiar faces.

“Definitely a lot of excitement, see some of my family and my friends and then obviously playing back home is always big,” said Brown, who grew up rooting for the team he’s now trying to eliminate.

“I used to come to a lot of games when I was younger. It was a period of time when they wasn’t really good and tickets were really low. The last game I went to was when Kobe [Bryant] played here and he destroyed them. … I used to come to a few games for sure.”

So Brown is acutely aware of how loud and passionate the Celtics fan base is under ordinary conditions. Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4 — which is expected to be in front of a near-capacity crowd — were expected to be extraordinary.

That crackling energy was bound to give the Celtics a boost. But Brown had a solution to short-circuit it.

“We’ve just got to go out there and play hard, execute our game plan. We know what we need to do,” Brown said. “So, go out there, punch ’em in the mouth early and that’ll work.”