Getty Kyrie Irving, Nets
Kyrie Irving has been the subject of NBA commentary over the last week.
Last week, the NBA Champion organized a conference call with 200 pro-basketball players from both the WNBA and the NBA.
Irving used the call as a way for players to voice their concerns regarding the NBA’s decision to resume play in Orlando, Florida. Irving’s Nets teammate, Kevin Durant, the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, Carmelo Anthony and C.J. McCollum and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Dwight Howard were all notables on the call.
According to multiple reports Irving stated: “I don’t support going into Orlando. I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullshit …
“Something smells a little fishy. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are targeted as black men every day we wake up.”
Irving has been a lightening rod for criticism, some say he’s misunderstood.
In an era of the coronavirus pandemic, the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the ongoing Colin Kaepernick/NFL controversy, many athletes have become outspoken. Irving seems to have that same passion. “Everybody handles it differently,” Los Angeles Lakers legend, Metta World-Peace told me on today’s episode of the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
Metta World Peace thinks the Warriors learned a simple lesson. (Getty)
“The minute you move a mountain, I’m bringing my whole hood with me. I don’t need anybody to validate if I’m going to do that. I was telling people that I’m from the ‘hood in a corporate world, guys making a stand and having experience in the streets, I did it. From my hood, I just did it. And people still remember that to this day; people don’t even know why they like me…’cause I’ve been doing this for a long time. Because I just did it and somebody like Kyrie Irving should just do it. You don’t need anybody; you’re a big time player. Just do what you wanna do. Whatever you think is right, we’re with you. But me personally, I would’ve played. Because I’m obsessed with the goddamn game. I DEFINITELY would’ve played, maybe cussed a few people out, but nothing in the NBA is crazier than the issue that are happening; how I would’ve spoke would’ve been different. These muthafuckas is nice. I remember the ‘I Can’t Breathe’ issue. Shit, we needed something stronger than that. We gotta say something. So you know, I get the peaceful protests versus the ignorant or violent protests. But you got to let people know sometimes. I know that we are not entirely but it’s still an outrage.”