Kyrie Irving is one of the most talented yet controversial players to play in the NBA. The Brooklyn Nets have seen Kyrie’s antics throughout the last few seasons. He has been in the headlines more for his off-court issues than for playing basketball.
The biggest controversy that Kai was involved in last season was his stance on getting the COVID-19 pandemic. While the entire league was focused on getting vaccine doses to get themselves safe, Kyrie was focused on apparently fighting a battle against the forced vaccine mandate.
So much so that Kyrie also labeled himself as a martyr for fighting this fight. Well, upon hearing that NBA analyst Stephen A. Smith was highly critical of Kai and gave him an earful. This was just one of the instances when Smith called out Kyrie Irving.
Stephen A. Smith Is Aware Of His Sour Relationship With Kyrie Irving
NBA players often have a bitter relationship with analysts who berate them openly. Kyrie and Smith’s relationship is a perfect example of that. Now due to the former openly criticizing the latter a lot in the last few months, he is aware of the consequences.
Stephen A. explained in one of his recent videos that he is aware that Kyrie is probably pissed at him, and he is sure that his relationship with the former NBA champion is broken beyond repair.
(Starts at 3:07)
“Kyrie and I will probably never speak again in life. I assure you, I won’t lose a minute of sleep over it. The issue is, you gotta be committed to showing up to work. The lack of commitment that people suspect he has, that is on him, not us. When you talk about wanting to change the narrative, you gotta accept first responsibility for the fact that you are the one that dictated the narrative. I might have disseminated it, I might have echoed it, but the creation came from him. Now that he’s in this situation, you gotta own it.”
There is certainly some bad blood between the two now, and, as Smith explained, he and Kyrie may never speak again in life.
But as he mentioned, the end goal for Irving should be to show up to work and do his job without getting distracted. If he cannot do that, the Brooklyn Nets will once again have an underwhelming season. And this time around, the superteam may finally break up.
