Kyrie Irving has been under fire this week after making some questionable comments on his past teammates, apparently taking a shot at LeBron James during a recent appearance in Kevin Durant’s podcast ‘The ETCs.’ Irving said Durant was the first teammate he could pass the ball to take the last shot since he knew he was going to make it.
“One thing I’ve always been comfortable with is I felt like I was the best option on every team I played for down the stretch,” Irving said. “This is the first time in my career where I can look down and be like, ‘That motherf—er can make that shot too.”
The 2016 NBA champion received a huge backlash for his comments from people defending LeBron, calling him out for not respecting the things James did for him and the career the King has had, making several clutch shots in 17 years. Kyrie shared some sort of apology, saying he’d name somebody when he’s taking shots, but this wasn’t the case.
Tony Kornheiser of ESPN talked about Irving, taking big shots at him, calling him ‘toxic’, wondering how anybody could want to play with him.
“He is so miserable. He is so toxic. I cannot believe anyone would ever want to play with him.”
"He is so miserable. He is so toxic. I cannot believe anyone would ever want to play with him." 😐
– Tony Kornheiser on Kyrie Irving
(🎥 @PTI )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2020
Instead of keeping a low profile, for now, Irving took to Instagram to talk to fans, discussing several topics.
“Some people would rather be dumb for money than brilliant for legacy,” he said.
"Some people would rather be dumb for money than brilliant for legacy."
– Kyrie Irving
(🎥 @AhnFireDigital) pic.twitter.com/v9CeP9dBu5
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 3, 2020
He also talked about Kobe Bryant, somehow comparing himself to the Black Mamba for all the things media tried to do to Kobe.
“Some people may describe Kob as this ‘fierce competitior, NBA All-Star, MVP, he doesn’t pass.’ Don’t forget that they even tried to crucify and smear my man Kob. Come on. Stay woke. Artist, teacher, philosopher, hooper, cultural icon.”
"Don’t forget that they even tried to crucify and smear my man Kob."
– Kyrie Irving
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2020
He even invited fans to have a few drinks before watching the NBA and WNBA Finals, even though he sounded very chilled, trying to shut down any bad comment people said about him.
Media: kYrIe iS mIsEraBle
Meanwhile… pic.twitter.com/owJPvdcOt9
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) October 2, 2020
Some could say Kyrie is a hater, he’s jealous and a bad teammate, but others will defend him against anything. His last two tenures in Cleveland and Boston say he’s at least, a difficult teammate, but so far the Nets haven’t done anything wrong to say about him. He often doesn’t pick the right words to express his idea and gets a lot of hate for that, but he doesn’t seem to be worried about it.
