The Brooklyn Nets were one of the most talked about teams during the summer for various reasons. For weeks there were rumors that both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving may leave the team in the offseason. But the Nets somehow managed to keep them at bay and started the new season high on energy.
In fact, it was revealed that Kyrie Irving even set up a team dinner after the rocky offseason. Unfortunately, the Nets haven’t been that good this season. After the team’s most recent defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks, they have started the season with a record of 1-3.
While most of the regular season is still ahead of us, many have already started to point fingers at the problems behind the Nets’ struggles. Most believe that Ben Simmons should be blamed for the poor start to the season. But NBA analyst Charles Barkley recently provided a unique take on the reason behind the Nets’ struggles.
Charles Barkley Calls Out Kyrie Irving
Chuck has always been a tough critic of Kyrie Irving. In the offseason, Barkley urged the Nets not to give a huge contract extension to Irving because he could not be trusted.
Now, in a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Barkley berated Irving for almost every decision that he has made since leaving the shadow of LeBron James.
(Starts at 1:03:20)
“Cavs were winning 20 games when he was the best player. And then, he’s like I don’t want to play second fiddle to LeBron. Oh, you want to be the man? And then stinks in Boston. And then they get rid of him, and they actually do better without him. And now you see this thing just been a clusterf**k in Brooklyn. So other than that one shot against the Warriors, his resume is spotty, too.”
Barkley has been super critical of Irving’s career over the last few years. But he still mentioned that Kyrie’s game-winning shot against the Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals was amazing. Even Klay Thompson recently admitted that Kai’s iconic shot is the biggest regret of his life.
But as Chuck mentioned, outside of that, Kyrie hasn’t really done a lot over the last few seasons. It seems everywhere he has gone, he has made things worse instead of better. The only way he can make things better is by leading the Nets to an NBA Championship.
