NBA star Kyrie Irving did not hold back about his feelings on some of the former players who now cover the sport and how he feels some “just be talking chat s–t.”
The Mavericks guard — and one-time member of the Nets — was streaming on Twitch on Saturday for more than five hours, during which he discussed a number of topics, including his feelings on the way the NBA is covered.
One major sticking point that Irving had involved the negativity surrounding the coverage of the sport, in particular from guys who had once been where he is now.
“Don’t even get me started on the former players that are gossiping now that love to s–t on players too,” Irving said a little over an hour into the stream. “Please don’t even get me started, bro. Do ya’ll remember when I was on ‘Inside the NBA,’ right? When I stood up there with Kenny, Shaq and Ernie and Charles. I’m sitting up there after they just talked s–t. I’m a man of principle. I’m standing up there, I don’t give a f–k.
“It’s not them I’m afraid of, they have no say so, it’s just when you s–t on players. Of course, if the criticism is warranted, absolutely I’m with that. … But when ya’ll sitting up there and ya’ll having these debates and then I’m sitting there and ya’ll trying to smile in my face, who the f–k is faking it? It ain’t me, I’m in the Western Conference Finals when I did that ‘Inside the NBA.’”
Irving continued to discuss the topic later in the stream when it came up again, and the nine-time All-Star called on everyone to “stop allowing people to come into our culture” and dictate the way things are supposed to be in the league.
“And I’m talking to some of the former players, too. They have lost their way,” Irving said a little more than four hours in. “There are some former players who just be talking chat s–t. You don’t even be talking about anything. All you do is hate on the younger players. And then you got young players looking up to these older players and we see them as, I don’t want to call them our idols, but we looked up to them. We valued their journeys. We respected their journeys.
“We wanted to get close to them. And then when you see somebody that you respect like that and admire, go on TV and talk about your journey as if it’s just some, ‘oh yeah, this just happens to you all the time, get over it because you make a bunch of money.’ I’m so sick of that f–king excuse, bro. That you’re not allowed to feel because you make a lot of money in the NBA and you get paid.”
Irving, who is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL, added that he believed that most NBA fans and commentators didn’t know much about the inner workings of the league, and Irving wanted to use his platform to correct some of that.
His season came to an end earlier this month when he suffered the injury during a loss to the Kings.
Irving averaged 24.7 points per game before suffering the injury while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field.
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