Getty Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving
Brooklyn Nets point guard, Kyrie Irving has been quite honest in interviews and media has not always understood his candor.
Kyrie Irving does not hold anything back in the Courtside Report with
@Grady
Recently, Irving stated that it was “glaring” that the Nets “need one or two more pieces to complement” himself, Kevin Durant, DeAndre Jordan, Garrett Temple, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert.
Many criticized Irving’s directness.
“We say we want directness, but we really don’t want it,” a source directly tied to Irving told me by phone this afternoon.
“We say we want the hard cold truth, but in reality that’s a lie.”
Irving recently put himself in the same sentence of late civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many were also stunned. “When I was out for those seven weeks and not saying anything and still people are still saying things about me,” said Irving.
“It’s inevitable. They crucified Martin Luther King for speaking about peace and social integration. You can go back to historical leaders and great people in society that do great things, and they’re still going to talk s—about them. It is what it is.”
A native of West Orange, New Jersey, Irving knows New York media. How does one navigate it?
I asked someone who knows it well: former Net and current Los Angeles Lakers forward, Jared Dudley.
GettyJared Dudley with Klay Thompson.
Check out our Q&A below:
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: What piece of advice would you give Kyrie Irving in handling the New York media?
Jared Dudley: When you’re a star sometimes honesty is not the answer and those are more for role players like myself, I bet you there’s a lot of stuff LeBron feels or wants to say but it’s a game. He has to learn how to play the game the right way. Not to take the heat off of himself, but to take the heat off of the organization and his teammates. Because at the end of the day, Kyrie is going to do what he wants to do but you don’t want to affect the organization and the players’ energy you need the most to win games.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: I caught you at the Barclays Center last week. You guys played the Brooklyn Nets, your former team. How cool was it to hear your name announced after the playoff run you guys had last year?
Jared Dudley: Oh for sure it felt great. The city embraced me when I was there. I was the one person who lived in the city and embraced the culture there. For one, we did something special. If it wasn’t for our season, they don’t get KD and Kyrie and DeAndre so I thought that we were the foundation or the piece of the puzzle. I know they’re rocky right now and it’s something they got to get over once KD comes, they are going to make a trade. They have a first round pick, they’ll make another trade and then they are going to be a top 2 seed next year.
Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson: The Clippers have seen to be your Achilles heel. How do you settle the edge with them?
Jared Dudley: I think for us with them it’s seeing the matchups. If they’re going to play Shamet, Lou Williams, we have to be out there what we’re doing picking on guys and they’re going to be there scoring which they have a good job doing. Put the best 5 defensive players against their best four in Lou Williams so if they do that, we gotta pick on ‘em. I mean let’s be honest, I thought we had the game on Christmas. Give them credit for walking us down and hitting shots. I mean listen man, they’re a good team. That’s a team that’s going to be at the end with us, so for us I’d rather lose to them now on their court and then win hopefully in May and get to the trophy in June.