Kyrie Irving finally saw fit to talk to members of the media yesterday, and he delved on the reasons he hitherto chose not to since training camp began on Dec. 1. It couldn’t have been the $25,000 fine he incurred from the National Basketball Association for deliberately missing Media Day and instead issuing a bizarre statement “to ensure,” in his words, “that my message is properly conveyed.” After all, he remained unavailable to scribes and, in fact, appeared to double down on his stance when he noted on Instagram that “I do not talk to Pawns. My attention is worth more.” On record, he argued that “the focus is on what’s going on in here, and I wanted to make sure that was clear. No distractions. Nothing about dispelling anything. Nothing about going back and forth.”
Perhaps Irving was chastened by the prospect of continuing sanctions from the commissioner’s office. Had he kept at it, he would most certainly have absorbed more penalties, financial and otherwise. And perhaps he was enjoined by the Nets, who would have been compelled to sustain an accompanying set of damages for as long as he stayed intransigent. In any case, his decision to break his silence outside of cryptic social media posts bodes well for all and sundry. He’s one of the league’s brightest stars, and, as such, needs to be front and center in promoting its causes, not to mention earning his keep. A significant part of the whopping $33.5 million he’ll be getting through the 2020-21 season involves a willing engagement in activities outside the court.
And so Irving found himself addressing the types of queries that he would not have been subjected to had he dealt with the media properly in the first place. To be sure, his justifications made little sense. He said he did so because he wanted to focus “on what’s going on in here” instead of on any distractions. Well, he lashed out at “Pawns” like a drama queen, thus causing the so-called “distractions” himself. And, as he elaborated on his thought process, his position became even more confusing. “It’s really just about how I felt about the mistreatment of certain artists when we get to a certain platform of when we make decisions within our lives to have full control and ownership… We want to perform in a secure and protected space,” he said. Huh?
No doubt, Irving has been trying to build a wall around himself because he feels his pronouncements to be twisted once they’re processed by scribes out to create headlines. He’s wrong, of course, and all he need do is look in the mirror to know who’s at fault whenever the news portrays him in a less-than-flattering light. He’s the one who said he doesn’t know if “the Earth is constitutionally round,” the one who said “I don’t really see us as having a head coach,” the one who said he’s “the best option on every team I’ve played for down the stretch,” the one who said pairing with Kevin Durant allows him to note that “this is the first time in my career where I can be like ‘that motherf****r can make that shot, too.’” Indeed, the wounds over which his bitterness grew have been largely self-inflicted.
It’s too bad, really, because Irving doesn’t just shut up and dribble. He has put himself behind plenty of worthy causes, a number of which would benefit from information the media can impart. Because he deems his relationship with the press to be adversarial, however, all quarters are negatively impacted. The mistrust festers, and the fans wind up being the real losers.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
