Kyrie Irving had plenty to say on Wednesday night after his Mavericks lost to the Pelicans, a night that included Irving dropping 27 points, but also clapping back at a fan seated nearby during the game.
Irving sounded off on multiple topics during a broadcast on Twitch, first calling out fans and media members who claim to know him just from watching him play basketball.
“You see me for three hours and you think you know who I am,” Irving said. “You see a few posts, ‘Oh, Ky is woke…he just doesn’t fit into the mold of all the other people. He’s different, he’s crazy, he’s arrogant.’ All from seeing me for three hours. You get all that. ‘What’s Ky gonna do this summer? Does Ky like Dallas? What happened in Brooklyn? What happened in Boston? What happened in Cleveland? Why did you leave LeBron [James]? Why did you leave Jayson [Tatum]? Why did you leave KD [Kevin Durant]? Why did you leave all these people?’ For three hours. You get to ask all these legitimate questions, as if 21 hours every day wasn’t happening after that.
“You would think that I’m the cancer in the locker room, as if basketball is an individual sport that one person is supposed to take blame for. It's 15 guys on the team and I'm the one cancer in the room. That's what it's portrayed as. That’s what you guys get. That’s what it’s portrayed as. That’s what they have fun doing. That’s why these older, bitter gentlemen and women keep my name in their mouths every day.”
Irving also had plenty to say about what sports betting has done to basketball, bringing about changes that he is clearly not a fan of.
“Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity and the fun away from the game at times,” Irving said. “I’m just gonna be honest. Work is work, but the support around it can just be distracting. There’s a difference between being a die-hard fan and supporting your team versus someone that’s betting on a parlay.
You’re gambling. You’re gonna win or lose. That doesn’t mean slide into people’s DMs or wish bad on them or the extra s--t that goes on. It blows my mind at times.”
Irving’s arrival in Dallas hasn’t brought about immediate success alongside Luka Doncic like the Mavericks had hoped. The team is 5-6 when Irving has played since his arrival after requesting a trade from the Nets, following contract negotiations that saw Brooklyn stand firm in its reluctance to offer fully guaranteed money to a player that sat much of last season due to his stance on receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. He also served a suspension earlier this season for promoting a film containing anti-Semitic material, and while he eventually apologized, he deleted his Instagram apology after being traed to the Mavericks.
Irving sounded off on multiple topics during a broadcast on Twitch, first calling out fans and media members who claim to know him just from watching him play basketball.
“You see me for three hours and you think you know who I am,” Irving said. “You see a few posts, ‘Oh, Ky is woke…he just doesn’t fit into the mold of all the other people. He’s different, he’s crazy, he’s arrogant.’ All from seeing me for three hours. You get all that. ‘What’s Ky gonna do this summer? Does Ky like Dallas? What happened in Brooklyn? What happened in Boston? What happened in Cleveland? Why did you leave LeBron [James]? Why did you leave Jayson [Tatum]? Why did you leave KD [Kevin Durant]? Why did you leave all these people?’ For three hours. You get to ask all these legitimate questions, as if 21 hours every day wasn’t happening after that.
“You would think that I’m the cancer in the locker room, as if basketball is an individual sport that one person is supposed to take blame for. It's 15 guys on the team and I'm the one cancer in the room. That's what it's portrayed as. That’s what you guys get. That’s what it’s portrayed as. That’s what they have fun doing. That’s why these older, bitter gentlemen and women keep my name in their mouths every day.”
Irving also had plenty to say about what sports betting has done to basketball, bringing about changes that he is clearly not a fan of.
“Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity and the fun away from the game at times,” Irving said. “I’m just gonna be honest. Work is work, but the support around it can just be distracting. There’s a difference between being a die-hard fan and supporting your team versus someone that’s betting on a parlay.
You’re gambling. You’re gonna win or lose. That doesn’t mean slide into people’s DMs or wish bad on them or the extra s--t that goes on. It blows my mind at times.”
Irving’s arrival in Dallas hasn’t brought about immediate success alongside Luka Doncic like the Mavericks had hoped. The team is 5-6 when Irving has played since his arrival after requesting a trade from the Nets, following contract negotiations that saw Brooklyn stand firm in its reluctance to offer fully guaranteed money to a player that sat much of last season due to his stance on receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. He also served a suspension earlier this season for promoting a film containing anti-Semitic material, and while he eventually apologized, he deleted his Instagram apology after being traed to the Mavericks.
