Getty Kyrie Irving in street clothes against the Pacers
Brooklyn Nets point guard, Kyrie Irving has the support of a former Nets point guard in Stephon Marbury.
“Kyrie Irving is a G,” Stephon Marbury told me on the Heavy With Scoop B Show.
“He’s a real one. He’s a guy that not only can get on the basketball court and perform, but off the court he has an opinion and as a human being he has a feeling which is in tune with what is actually happening with other human beings. So when he speaks and he says something, he doesn’t just speak it and say things just because he’s talking. He’s speaking and talking because he can feel the vibration of what’s actually happening and what’s actually going on in the universe and what’s happening with our people.”
A two-time NBA All Star, Stephon Marbury, 43, played 12 NBA seasons in the NBA. During his NBA career, Marbury averaged 19.3 points and 7.6 assists in stops with the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Jersey Nets, Phoenix Suns, Knicks and Boston Celtics. He’s currently the head coach of the Beijing Royal Fighters of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Kyrie Irving, 28, averaged 27.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.4 assists per contest this season in his first year with the Nets.
One of the Vice Presidents of the NBA’s Player’s Association, Irving has been ridiculed since June after organizing a conference call with pro-basketball players from both the WNBA and the NBA.
The purpose of the call was for players to voice their concerns regarding the NBA’s decision to resume play in Orlando. “I’m not with the systematic racism and the bullsh**,” Irving reportedly said while on the call.
“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 didn’t join the Nets in Orlando and they were swept by the Toronto Raptors in round one of the NBA Playoffs.
Since March, however, the West Orange, New Jersey native has been productive through philanthropic works.
In July, Irving started a $1.5 Million fund to support WNBA players who didn’t want to play in the WNBA’s restart in Florida.
A source close to Brooklyn Nets PG Kyrie Irving says: “The whole point is to use the platform to make change. Now that there’s basketball being played, the platform being provided is a distraction. We need to be using this unique opportunity to create change.”
In May, Irving, in conjunction with Nike, donated 17 pallets of food and 50,000 N95 masks to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe that will be distributed across a wide expanse of North and South Dakota. In April, Irving donated 200,000 vegan Beyond Burgers to food banks in New York City to aid its hunger-relief efforts during the coronavirus pandemic. In March, the Brooklyn Nets point guard pledged that he’d donate $323,000 to Feeding America and that he’d help distribute 250,000 meals in the New York City area.
Perception of Irving has changed in recent days. On Sunday, Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was shot multiple times in the back by police as he entered his SUV in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
As a result, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to play in Game 5 of their NBA Playoffs game against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday afternoon.
The NBA cancelled games on Wednesday and Thursday and games are likely to resume on Saturday.
In recent days the narrative has shifted and many on social media are looking at Irving as correct in his view including Stephon Marbury. “Not everyone is connected to this vibration which I feel is imperative for us to have an understanding about why we say what we say and we feel what we feel about what’s happening with our people when we see what’s happening,” Marbury told me on the Heavy With Scoop B Show.
Kyrie Irving this year:
📍 Donated $323,000 & $250,000 in meals to NYC during COVID-19.
📍Donated 200,000 Beyond Burgers to NYC food banks.
📍 Started a $1.5 Million fund to support WNBA players.
📍Produced Justice for Breonna Taylor tv show.
📍Donated 50,000 COVID-19 masks.
“It’s not like this just started. This is what’s been going on for a long period of time. So when we speak and talk about what’s happening with us and we say why we’re saying what we’re saying about what’s going on in the current situation of how people are treating us, when he says this and he speaks about this and he’s talking this not being about basketball, I think not everyone is inclined to understand what it is that he’s speaking and talking about and that goes for the NBA players as well because not everyone in the NBA is conscious And I’ll say that again: not everyone in the NBA is conscious.”
A six-time NBA All-Star, Irving was the first pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Guided by head coach, Ty Lue and playing alongside LeBron James, Kevin Love and JR Smith, Irving helped guide the Cavaliers to an NBA Championship in 2016. Irving joined Kevin Durant and signed with the Nets last summer.