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I want to see Kyrie Irving win…but he needs to get real



I want to see Kyrie Irving win…but he needs to get real

I need to start off with Kyrie Irving now Kyrie Irving is a superstar Talent a champion a spectacular basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks I’m not telling the basketball World anything they don’t know the rest of the world might want it to find out won a championship even though he got

Drafted number one overall years ago and he was in Cleveland for years without LeBron James he started in Cleveland and then ultimately departed and went uh to the Boston Celtics this is after he won a championship in Cleveland um with LeBron James ultimately ended up going to the Boston Celtics departing from there

Ultimately going to the Brooklyn Nets and convincing Kevin Durant to join him in Brooklyn after three years departed from there and now he is in Dallas Texas he returned to Brooklyn last night for the first time time since he was traded away from the Brooklyn Nets to join the Dallas

Mavericks and he dropped about 36 points hit 62% of his shots six attemp from three-point Reign five assists no free throw attempts didn’t need any he put on an absolute show because that’s how spectacular he is and in the aftermath of that he spoke to the media uh being interviewed at the barlay

Center in Brooklyn listen here to what he had to say please I don’t know if anything needed to be Salvage I just think it was time to get my own peace of mind and go somewhere um where I was able to to thrive um and be in a

Situation where I didn’t have to worry about um you know kind of behind the back talk or the media talk or not knowing how to handle um you know real life circumstances uh that uh it has nothing to do with the game of basketball has everything to do with how you handle

Someone as a person and um while I was here I’ve learned a lot of lessons I’ve made my pce again like I said and I just want to move forward you know things could have changed and you look back at the past and you have 2020 Vision this

Could have gone right if this would have happened if I didn’t get injured versus the Bucks do I get do I still ask for a trade if Katie’s foot wasn’t on the three-point line are we talking about a different Legacy here if James doesn’t ask for a trade all the would have could

Have should have would is hopefully after this night we could just put that to rest and just Mo forward and I could look forward to the rest of my career and just handling in Dallas and um going after my second Championship see this is the reason why I felt the need to talk

About the subject because to me it’s very very simple some folks just don’t get it you know and it’s not about him doing something wrong it certainly isn’t about him doing something criminal it’s certainly about not him necessarily to be uh uh put himself in a position to be

Criticized but I do think it’s important if we’re speaking for basketball fans everywhere to really really engage in this subject just for a couple of minutes here again he dropped 36 last night and what does he say I made my peace but never mentioning all of the

Drama created by Him and the Miss Championship opportunities because that’s what matters see I’m here trying to be cool because Kyrie is not a bad person and I remember when so many people thought that I had some personal acts to grind with this brother who did get on

My nerve on a personal level but I’m a grown ass man and I can get over that and to give props to Kyrie Irvin who again is a decent brother when he ultimately confronted me after a year of us Buton heads via tweets or something on social media

Or something that I said on my day job on first take on ESPN every weekday morning from 10: a.m. to 2 or 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon rather Kyrie Irving rolled up on me at the crypto.com arena during the playoffs last year and he said yo if we

Really being serious about this this ain’t about me and you anymore this is about me and my dad because his dad got involved and I thought was out of pocket with what he had said to me so we were bickering and Kyrie felt like a victim ladies and gentlemen Kyrie was

Right if I’m being a grown ass man about all of this he was right we got to call a spade to Spade we’re grown-ups his father and I so you know what we did thereafter we met up we hashed out our differences like grown men with a conversation we shook hands and his

Father and I have been fine ever since because he is a good man a man that just loves his son dearly and was protecting his son and speaking up for his son because he knows his son is not going to engage in speaking up for himself but so

Much so dri V is a fantastic person and I’m so glad that we met up and made amends because he wasn’t the only one that apologized I apologize because we were both wrong in our own ways and Kyrie deserves all the credit because I don’t know if that would have happened

If Kyrie didn’t bring it to my attention and crystallize it for me the way that he did props to Kyrie so let me return the fav of Kyrie and crystallize something for you when you say you just you’ve made your peace and you just want to be past all the drama please

Understand what net fans and basketball fans everywhere were hoping for you KD were a an elite Tandem and when James Harden arrived here we see what he’s doing in with the Clippers we were hoping he would be doing that for you and what transpired instead in three and

A half Seasons from 2019 20120 to the 2022 2023 season before Kyrie Irving was traded last Fe February Kyrie Irving missed 135 of 278 possible games as a Brooklyn Nets ladies and gentlemen that’s 48% of the games that’s 48% of the games he missed do you know that Kyrie Irving

James Harden and Kevin Durant played a grand total of 16 games together 16 you know how bad that is I appreciate the shades I appreciate the fly ass black blazer he was wearing yesterday he looked pretty damn cool and his game was just his his game looked

Better but you do find yourself looking at him and wishing damn that could have happened in Brooklyn I told y’all yall should have went to the Knicks because y’all would have owned the city forever because if You’ have delivered a championship to New York City for the

First time since wal Clyde Frasier had been a Nick you’d have owned it you’d have been billionaire is because James Dolan would have seen to it now he may not know much about running the Knicks franchise but he knows a lot about making money and if you came out here to

Vegas and you saw the sphere which is owned by him you know what the hell I’m talking about it’s off the chain but I digress I look at Kyrie Irving he played in three playoff series with the Nets in three years and lost two of them that means he only got out

Of the first round once I have openly conceded that if he hadn’t twisted his ankle against Milwaukee right before Kevin Durant dropped 49 in a game five and 48 in the game seven I contend the Brooklyn Nets would have won that series and they probably would have

Went to the NBA fin no they definitely would have went to the NBA finals because they would have beat Atlanta and then after that I believe they would have beaten Chris Paul and Devin Booker and a Phoenix Sons and they had won a championship but injuries happened but there was was also covid

Vaccination mandate and if you recall Kyrie Irving had to miss some games because of that because he refused to take the vaccine and all of this other stuff and we all know that he has every right to be an antivaxer we got all of that my issue with him back then was you

Missed enough work there’s always an excuse to miss games we want to see you on a court playing that’s all here was Kyrie Irving last night when a fan was heckling him as to why he didn’t play that way in when he was in Brooklyn the way he played last night

Even though he did on many occasions but listen to the whole and watch the whole interaction right now it’s really quick check this out right here Kyrie why you don’t play like this when you why may oh come on so he said okay ask mayor Adams that’s relatively flippant I

Understand that the fan probably deserved it I don’t think he deserves any kind of backlash for that or anything like that I’m not going to bring up the whole anti-semitic beliefs that people tried to attach to him just because he posted something on Twitter and what kind of

Suspension that led to or anything like that you know or him and the net supposedly each donated $500,000 towards causes and organizations that work to eradicate hate and intolerance in El communities all of this other I’m not doing all of that I’m not doing all of that today I’m simply saying

The one night where it would have been nice to see a heightened level of sensitivity from Kyrie Irving as it pertained to all the things that went wrong in Brooklyn was the one night he returned to Brooklyn you don’t owe that to Dallas you don’t owe that to Nick

Fans in New York City you don’t owe that to Philadelphia or Boston you don’t owe it to LA or Chicago or anything like that but you owed it to them because 48% of the time you weren’t there and Championship aspirations you didn’t even come close to succeeding strictly because of those missed

Games if Kyrie Irving plays in 40 of those 48% of the Miss games the Nets probably win a championship they certainly get to a Conference Finals if not an NBA Finals but Kyrie being gone Kevin Durant following after James Harden departed and Ben Simmons Departed look y’all or Ben Simmons arrived look

Y’all it’s all about that humility from time to time it really is and unfortunately that’s not what I saw from Kyrie Irv and that’s all I wanted to say the one spot the one place where it would have been nice for him I’m not sitting

There trying to hate on him I really am not I want to see Kyrie win I want to see him play we all get treated to something special when we watch this brother on the basketball court but it would have been nice to see him go like

Damn I had a lot to learn and I learned a lot from it and I’m really sorry at what I didn’t do for us when for y’all when I was here it would have been nice the only person that doesn’t owe anybody an apology in Brooklyn is Kevin Durant

Cuz that brother brought it that’s it

On The Stephen A. Smith Show, Smith gives you his renowned point of view, breaking barriers beyond the world of sports, and tackling pertinent issues across entertainment, pop culture, society, business, and politics. Three times a week, you’ll hear his LIVE unfiltered opinions on the day’s biggest headlines as well as straight-shooting interviews with top celebrities, game-changers, and thought leaders across the societal arena.

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20 Comments

  1. Yea you reaching man, Keep your podcast solid, it’s clear you reaching for views on this segment and 95% of your audience disagree just read the comments.. Stay solid bro don’t lose an audience doing sh** like this.

  2. Almost everything you said aligns with kyrie Irving saying what ifs this is that happened.

    Also kyrie doesn’t owe anyone an apology.

  3. Move on Stephen A. This is one of thing I hate about you. Just respect the guys decision about his health etc. Talk about the game bro and not get too personal

  4. It was brooklyn fault why they lost kyrie, KD and harden!!! The nets made the decision to not have kyrie play in away games during covid NOT THE LEAGUE the nets did that and to ultimately
    Go back on their decision and have him play away games contradicted themselves because they were losing. The nets failed to surround KD, Kyrie and harden with the proper pieces in order to win. That season the nets was one of the smallest teams (height wise) they was thin and couldn’t get a rebound to save their lives!! Who fault is that again THE NETS!!! Finally the nets tried to resign Kyrie with all these different incentives like he has to play a certain amount of games to get his guaranteed money. All these different stipulations for them to give him a max deal. Why would he take that deal?? But the media make him be the bad guy lol THE NETS MESSED EVERY UP THEY DID IT TO THEMSELVES!!!!!!

  5. Kyrie couldn’t play because of a city policy. I’m sure many players just got fake vax cards but that’s not Kyrie’s style same with Novak and I’m sure many tennis players had fake cards as well. These two guys stand on principle and the right to make choices of how to govern their own bodies.

    The other thing was after the fact and helped to show him how the nets really feel about him. He maybe shouldn’t have posted that link BUT the media response and Nets response helped show that he shouldn’t be in that organization.

    That organization treated him poorly and didn’t support him as a human being. I think on the contrary the Nets owe Kyrie an apology and I would imagine that’s how he feels. He was there to win and help and other factors got in the way and the organization perpetually treated him with disrespect. God forbid a human being with self respect and dignity shows up to play basketball.

  6. Let the man play you don’t want to see him win your always trashing his name it’s been years let it go dam. I thought he was goin to say something nice but I tired of listening to this did fr

  7. Stephen A, why don’t you leave Kyrie alone ? This guy can’t pass gas without you having a problem with him . Jesus

  8. Why is this still a conversation dude. Move on. No one cares, and if Nets fans care so much they need to move on too. I get being butt hurt, but using that as an excuse to just continuously crap on someone regularly is getting really old.

    He's not gonna say what you want him to say. Let it go.

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