As Celtics fans pummeled Kyrie Irving with insults all night long, Kyrie Irving made sure to let them know how he was feeling.
In Brooklyn’s 114-115 loss to the Celtics on Sunday, Uncle Drew made headlines by flipping them the bird on several occasions. Even after the final buzzer, he was unapologetic about his behavior.
Unsurprisingly, the whole thing just isn’t sitting right with some people.
On ‘NBA Today’ Richard Jefferson chimed in with his own take on the subject and called for Irving to be better.
“Kyrie has seen everything. The b-word, the p-word all of these words, we have seen since we were in High School, we have seen since we were in college. I respect Kyrie and I understand his intensity but there’s kids back there. That is not your responsibility, but the minute you do that there are little kids back there that aren’t doing anything. Now while there are fans back there saying these things, that’s out of your control. You control what you can control on the court and off the court. So to do that and to have kids sitting behind you… you saw in that video there was a kids reaction like ‘oh my god’ like we can’t meet the fan’s energy the same way. You saw what Trae Young did in the Garden where the whole crowd was doing everything, you know what Trae Young did? Trae Young took a bow. And Trae Young hasn’t even been in a quarter of the situations that Kyrie has been when you’re talking about intense basketball.”
“I understand this is gonna be an emotional situation for Kyrie and even Boston fans but ultimately Kyrie has to be better, fans have to be better, but I just implore all players that when you’re reacting to that fan, you’re not just reacting to that fan. You’re reacting to the kids, the women, all the men that are sitting around them that are innocent bystanders and I ljust don’t think that’s positive for our league.”
.@Rjeff24 reacts to Kyrie Irving’s recent interaction with fans.
“As players we can’t meet fans energy the same way. … You're not just reacting to that fan, you’re reacting to the kids … I just don’t think that’s positive for our league.” pic.twitter.com/xYZySJTnwr
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 18, 2022
Players like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant have made it known that they are not afraid to fight back again their critics and haters, even in the middle of games.
Instead of ignoring the noise, or having people kicked from the stands, some players embrace the hate and use it as an opportunity to let off some steam.
But is this practice actually good for the NBA? As Richard Jefferson eloquently pointed out, that may not be the case
