Why Kyrie Irving is More of a “Snake” Than Kevin Durant
"This is great for basketball” (2015), “THE WARRIORS BLEW A THREE TO ONE LEAD!” (2016)…and then “okay, this is getting kinda boring now.” (2017).
That, in a nutshell, is the past three years of the NBA Finals, the Cavaliers and the Warriors. It was fun to watch, two of the best teams in the NBA, one of them probably the best to step on an NBA court…
And then, after this year (if it’s Cavs-Warriors again), it’s not going to be that much fun anymore. Not because the Warriors are a super team looking to taking over the NBA. Not because nobody wants to watch the same series over and over again. No.
It’s because, in all of the aftermath of the latest NBA finals, there will be one player missing. And to tell you the truth, that player’s decision is not much different, maybe worse, than the decision of “the snake”.
In case you haven’t had it figured out by now, I’m talking about two different scenarios: Kevin Durant’s decision to join the Warriors, and Kyrie’s trade request.
We all know the story of KD’s move. His own team blew a 3-1 lead in the Conference Finals, and then he watched that team blow a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals (before both teams watched ANOTHER team from Cleveland blow a 3-1 lead).
In case you needed a refresher, 2016 in sports was very weird.
So Kevin Durant, in 352 words on The Player’s Tribune, made a decision that was highly criticized and (because we’re in the 21st Century) memed. He decided to sign a contract with the Golden State Warriors. And as we all know already, what followed that was a series of memes, jersey burnings, and everything in between.
Even we got into the fun:
But, as much as it may hurt Russell Westbrook (not really) and Oklahoma City fans, as much as it may hurt the Wizard fans that thought that he was coming there, as much as it may hurt for the delusional Knicks (or Nets) fans that thought he might go there, the answer is simple.
He was not tied to the OKC Thunder. He did NOT have to stay there. He was something that I like to call, oh I don’t know, a FREE AGENT (and please, highlight or underline the “free” part in that sentence as much as you can).
The brutally honest truth is, the majority of NBA players WANT to be on that big stage. Unlike MLB players, where they will sign that big contract the first chance they get, NBA players are in it to win it all. And once they hit that open market, it seems like most, if not all of the star players are trying to form super teams.
Is there competitive balance? Not really, and especially not in the East, where star players over the last few years have either diminished in talent or moved to the West. But are players like Kevin Durant at fault, as a FREE agent, for giving themselves the best chance to win? No.
I will say it as many times as I need, there is no asterisk to be added to the Warriors’ postseason run. For one, that team, KD or no KD, was going to the finals. And if the man wants to go ring chasing, with a man of his talents, probably the best player in the NBA if LeBron doesn’t exist, let him.
As Isaiah Thomas mentioned in The Player’s Tribune, “So when players are getting moved left and right, and having their lives changed without any say-so, and it’s no big deal … but then the handful of times it flips, and the player has control … then it’s some scandal?”
And speaking of Isaiah Thomas, who wrote this piece after being traded to the Cavaliers for this “selfish” player…
That man is Kyrie Irving, who would wind up requesting a trade away from Cleveland for numerous reasons. The one that sticks out to me though is “reportedly to be more of the focal point of his own team instead of continuing to play alongside LeBron James.”
Interpret that however you want, but how I view it is a guy that simply cares about being “the man” of the team. He wants the most attention on his game, to let the media know his views.
And that wouldn’t be a problem…except when he did get the opportunity in February, he went out and said that “This is not even a conspiracy theory...The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat” and then restated in November that “there is not one real picture of the Earth, not one.” That doesn’t even consider the fact that he believes in other popular conspiracy theories, like if John F. Kennedy was killed by the Federal Reserve, and if the C.I.A. tried to kill Bob Marley.
Yep, this is the guy trying to attract all the attention on himself.
Let’s compare Kyrie's moment to recent Los Angeles Angels’ signee Shohei Ohtani. Instead of chasing a pretty easy ring in L.A., in New York, in Houston, he decided that he wasn’t going to play with another Japanese star (if those reports are indeed true), along with a west coast team and a smaller market (one of those in which Anaheim is definitely not).
But back to Kyrie, I just see nothing but his own personal game in him. I think because he has his ring, he's like most players, he only wants to show off his own talents. He was VERY lucky to be traded to the Celtics (he probably wouldn't be the focal point of his team now had Gordon Hayward not turned his ankle into Times Square on New Year's Day), otherwise, "focal point of his own team" very well could've meant the Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn Nets, or Sacramento Kings. Take your pick.
The point to take from this is that what Kevin Durant was definitely "meme-worthy" and hilarious, especially based off the events that happened the year after that. I'm not completely condemning everyone for making fun of his decision.
But if we're going to completely bash someone for leaving his team as a free agent, then we also have to bash Kyrie Irving for requesting a trade from a team, especially away from a player that has brought so much for him to the table. Let's not forget where the Cavs were when it was just Kyrie without LeBron and Kevin Love. Kyrie obviously wants to go back to that.
And, you know what, that's perfectly okay. But the same treatment that Kevin Durant is getting from the NBA, you should be getting as well.