With all the news and rumors surrounding Kevin Durant’s future, or lack thereof, with the Brooklyn Nets, we almost forgot about the always polarizing Kyrie Irving. But that changed Thursday when Irving responded to a report from NBA analyst Ric Bucher.
In the most recent episode of his On The Ball podcast, Bucher reported Irving and the Nets have reached a stalemate in their contract negotiations after the superstar point guard made some unique demands.
“Joe Tsai has already shown he’s willing to play hardball with Kyrie by taking a max extension off the table almost immediately,” Bucher said on his podcast. “Now, part of that may be Kyrie’s doing. I’m told he wanted his new contract to guarantee he wouldn’t have to play more than 60 games in a season and would not have to play any back-to-backs, which he apparently referred to as inhumane.”
Considering Irving’s inability to display much reliability during the NBA regular season in recent years, should the 60-game ask be that shocking of a request as the 30-year-old point guard looks to prolong his career? If the report is true, I would actually appreciate Irving’s honesty rather than see him sign up to play 82 games each season and fake reasons for needing to sit out. But after Bucher’s report gained attention for being wild and absurd, Irving took it upon himself to respond.
First, Irving offered a Lorenzo Cain hat tip GIF, implying the report is cap (a lie).
— Chief Hélà 🤞🏾 (@KyrieIrving) August 11, 2022
Next, Irving posted a tweet claiming the media is controlling our subconscious thoughts, which seems like an extreme reaction to a Ric Bucher report, but at least the Nets star didn’t cite the “new media” anywhere in the post.
When you’re ready to Break free from the media’s control over your subconscious thoughts and emotions, meet me on One of my platforms and let’s chop it up.
We the A11Even tribe love our conversations about the TRUTH and what is truly happening.
Welcome to the
PARADIGM SHIFT♾— Chief Hélà 🤞🏾 (@KyrieIrving) August 11, 2022
“When you’re ready to Break free from the media’s control over your subconscious thoughts and emotions, meet me on One of my platforms and let’s chop it up,” Irving wrote. “We the A11Even tribe love our conversations about the TRUTH and what is truly happening. Welcome to the PARADIGM SHIFT.”
I guess Irving is insinuating that he already broke free from the “media’s control” over his own subconscious thoughts, which is odd because he’s the one responding to the media report. And in his response, Irving didn’t explicitly deny the report, which leads me to think that it might be true, even though I’m trying really hard to make sure Ric Bucher isn’t controlling my subconscious thoughts.
Would it be that crazy for Irving to say he doesn’t want to play more than 60 regular season games or any back-to-backs? He’s only played more than 60 games four times during his 11-year NBA career and as far as the playing on consecutive nights thing goes, most NBA teams are on board with giving their superstars rest during back-to-backs.
In terms of things Irving has done or said in recent years, wanting to limit his regular season to 60 games would be pretty tame, and it might not be long before other NBA superstars make similar contractual requests.
