Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets were supposed to have a partnership that ended in ultimate success, like a fairytale. When Irving chose to join the Brooklyn Nets in 2019, and Kevin Durant came along for the ride, they looked like a lock to become perennial Finals contenders. This never ended up happening, though, and Kyrie left while being on terrible terms with the ownership and management.
Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai has spoken more in public in recent times than any NBA owner should ideally have to. In the aftermath of Kyrie Irving sharing a link to a documentary that was anti-Semitic, Tsai was notoriously harsh on Irving. Not only did he give him a list of tasks to do before the team would let him play for them again, but he also called Kyrie out publicly.
“I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation. I want to sit down and make sure he understands this is hurtful to all of us, and as a man of faith, it is wrong to promote hate based on race, ethnicity or religion.”
Things got better after Kyrie Irving did what he needed to to get back on the court. Tsai himself would go on to praise Irving later, even though that might have been because a lot of people called him out for it. But despite that, it seems their relationship never quite recovered.
NBA Insider Says Talks Between Kyrie Irving And Joe Tsai And The Nets Broke Down After Anti-Semitism Controversy
It’s easy to understand why a controversy like that and the ensuing reaction would severely damage a relationship between a player and a franchise owner. And despite all the efforts to make things better, NBA Insider Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson said on the Under The Hood podcast that they never recovered after the tweet.
“The larger part of it was the deal [the extension], but as much it was the larger deal or the larger issue it wasn’t. Their relationship kind of… meaning between Joe Tsai and Kyrie Irving, from my understanding and conversations I’ve had, broke down back in October when Kyrie tweeted that link.
“But it was even broken-down way before then; it was a difference in philosophy. When Kyrie tweeted that link on Amazon about the Hebrews to Negroes, if you recall, Joe Tsai got ahead of it and tweeted his displeasure with it, and from folks that I’ve spoken with across the league, there were a lot of owners who felt as though that was very premature and he should have had a conversation.”
Joe Tsai’s animosity with Kyrie Irving seems to run deep, he reportedly stopped the team from trading Kyrie to the Lakers since that was where he wanted to go. Ultimately, Irving is no longer a Net, but that does make it interesting to think about what the two might have to say about one another in the future.
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