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Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is no stranger to crowd interactions with hecklers. So, it came as no surprise that in the Nets’ recent loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers he responded to some fans taunting him during the game. While it is unclear what the fans were shouting at Irving, it was something that disturbed the Nets point guard. Enough that he felt the need to address them mid-game to remind them of how much he has done for the city.
“Got y’all a championship, and you motherf****** still ungrateful,” Irving said during the loss.
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NBA Comes Down on Kyrie Irving for Exchange With Fan
In line with the NBA’s guidelines, Irving was fined $25,000 for directing obscene language towards those fans.
Irving is no stranger to paying fines for his actions on or off of the court. Last season, he was recorded as paying roughly $1.7 million in fines, the most among NBA players during the 2020-21 season. While the number of fines he paid was mostly due to his violation of the league’s health and safety protocols, several other infractions were because of ejections and technical fouls.
The Nets as a whole have been caught failing to adhere to league policies several times and received multiple infractions because of it. With Irving’s continued refusal of the vaccine, he is forced to pay $381,181 for every game he misses. With his latest penalty being $25,000, plus Kevin Durant’s $15,000 fine for a recent NSFW outburst in a postgame press conference, the Nets have paid the second most in fines as a team, sitting only behind the Philadelphia 76ers.
Durant’s history of hefty fines may span even further back than Kyrie’s. In 2018, while he was still with the Golden State Warriors, Durant sat down with Yahoo Sports’ Chris B. Haynes after a game against the Dallas Mavericks where he told a fan to “Shut the f**** up and watch the f****** game”. He was fined $25,000 in the middle of the interview.
“Grown men can’t come to a game and heckle grown men”, Durant said to Haynes of interactions between players and fans. “That’s corny that’s weak. You come into a game to heckle another grown man, ‘you soft,’ ‘you weak,’ Draymond this, Draymond that, ‘you’re a b—-,’ [and] you’re going to sleep as a grown man doing that to another person?”
LaMarcus Aldridge Has High Praise for Kyrie
With Durant projected to miss 4-6 weeks of playing time with a sprained MCL, the Nets have been looking for their reserves to carry a heavier workload in his absence. Brooklyn’s bench showed that they are more than capable of holding their own in their win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.
Patty Mills shot 5/7 from beyond the arc to score 17 points while LaMarcus Aldridge, scored 27 points off the bench and shot 73% from the field. With Irving still finding his role in the Nets offense, most expected Brooklyn to go through an adjustment period. But when asked about reintegrating Irving into the lineup, Aldridge had nothing but great things to say.
“It’s been fun. He makes plays where you’re looking and you’re just like ‘Man’, you’re glad he’s on your team,” Aldridge said of Irving per SNY.
Irving will look to continue making an impact on the team in the Nets’ next game against the San Antonio Spurs.
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