Kyrie Irving, after backing out off a reset pass from TJ Warren, dazzled the road crowd at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C by driving effortlessly past Wizards wing Corey Kispert and faking out Kyle Kuzma in mid-air for a remarkable left handed finger roll in the second quarter of the Nets vs Wizards game on December 12. The entire Nets bench rose to their feet, including Kevin Durant, who extended his left hand and fingers as if to say, “nice left.” Kyrie’s 24 points, paired with an efficient 30 from Durant, would help lead the Brooklyn Nets to a 112-100 victory over Washington, their eighth victory in nine contests.
Things, however, were not always so certain for this Nets squad. To begin the season, they had started 2-5 under an inexperienced head coach in Steve Nash who, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News, “could not coach a JV team,” and often struggled with rudimentary coaching skills such as timeout management.
The Nets front office quickly took notice of the team’s substantial struggles under the coaching of the Hall of Fame guard, who had been at the center of reasons for Durant’s trade request this past summer. Nash had a short leash. One could argue he should never have started the season with the job. Nash certainly did not have an easy job over the past two seasons, dealing with a ton of uncertainty. In the 2021-22 campaign, the Nets sent 43, yes forty-three, different starting lineups to the floor, by far the highest mark in the NBA.
The season was muddled by Kyrie Irving’s vaccination status, which kept him out the majority of the season, and the increasing frustration of former Nets guard James Harden amidst all the uncertainty. This frustration would result in a trade request by Harden which landed him with his old pal Daryl Morey in Philadelphia with the 76ers, one of the Nets’ biggest rivals over the past few seasons. In return, the Nets received Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, Ben Simmons, and two first-round draft picks.
Curry and Drummond would suit up for the majority of games down the stretch, providing their skill sets to a team desperate for depth.
The Nets found themselves in the strange situation of being deprived of star-power half of the time, as they caved to Kyrie’s unvaccinated status and lifted his team suspension, allowing him to become something the NBA had hardly seen before—a part time player. This limitation would allow Kyrie only to play road games in cities where vaccination regulations allowed. This would last most of the remainder of the season, much to the dismay of his fanbase. Chants of “Free Kyrie!” rang out in numerous arenas around the league, even where Kyrie was not present.
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January 19, 2021. “A lot of family and personal stuff going on, I’ll just leave it at that…Happy to be back” Irving said in a press conference announcing his return from a seven-game personal hiatus from the team, during which he was seen maskless at a family function. Irving, upon his return to the team, was fined $50,000 by the NBA for violation of COVID-19 protocols, and forfeited north of $400,000 in salary for each game that he missed.
He joined a roster that, due to the uncertainty he brought, shelled out important assets like Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen, in exchange for James Harden, just one year before Harden gave up on the Nets himself.
One could argue that Kyrie has been the wildcard that has prevented Brooklyn from securing a championship. However, they equally cannot do it without him.
Later that season, in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Nets up 2-1 in the series on the Milwaukee Bucks, Kyrie drove to the basket and landed on the foot of Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, spraining his ankle and being sidelined for the remainder of the playoffs. The Nets would lose the game.
Harden, because of this, was forced to play games six and seven after a 49-point triple double by Durant in Game 5, despite a grade-two hamstring strain. The series would boil down to an overtime in game seven, forced by a miraculous, yet tragic fadeaway by Kevin Durant in the final seconds of regulation. His toe was just barely on the painted arc. The Nets were centimeters away from moving on. The Bucks would go on to win the championship in one of the most injury plagued question marks of a playoff the NBA had ever seen.
For reasons not always in his control, Kyrie has struggled to stay on the floor.
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“I know they are friends…. they play video games… Grand Theft Auto,” Winfield said on the friendship between Durant and Irving, a duo often referred to as 7/11. There is a real possibility, according to Alec Sturm of SB Nation, that Kyrie might not be with Brooklyn if not for his great on and off-court relationship with the team’s crown jewel, number seven.
On October 27, 2022, Kyrie shared an Amazon Documentary entitled Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America. This documentary promotes Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, which discounts the legitimacy and intentions of white Jews in America and spreads a number of antisemitic tropes.
“I think he is part of a snowstorm [of antisemitism]. How shortsighted do you have to be to post something like that on your social media without a caption and expect there to be no repercussions?” Winfield said on the matter, “[Kyrie acted] like he didn’t do anything wrong until he was suspended. I couldn’t believe it. With no context, it is crazy.”
Winfield added that society should be able to agree that Kyrie hurt the Jewish community, as somebody with such a high platform. Kanye West started the whole anti-Jewish snowstorm and, “like a continuation foul,” Kyrie perpetuated it. Ultimately, it would result in a team-issued suspension of Irving.
Pre-suspension, Kyrie decided to take, “The Kyrie route,” in answering questions about his post and his beliefs. “How could I be antisemitic when I know where I come from?”
Kyrie was given a suspension for a minimum of five games, and a laundry list of tasks to complete before he would be allowed back on the floor, including charitable donations as well as conversations with leaders of the Jewish faith, and most importantly, the apology that had been missing from his public explanation for weeks.
Kyrie returned to the floor to the tune of the same standing ovations he had received between the time of his post and his suspension. However, this time, Kyrie was garnering support from the Black Hebrew Israelites, a cult that falsely believes to be the true descendants of Israel, and has been responsible for many hate crimes against the Jewish community. These individuals, upon Kyrie’s return to Barclays Center, rallied outside the arena, dressed in all purple, chanting their beliefs for Atlantic Avenue and beyond to hear. Brooklyn has long been known for its strong Jewish community. This juxtaposition had only made things worse.
Basketball wise, the Nets had their star guard back, and have played good team basketball since. Outside of the arena, however, was a community being hurt.
“There is always something with Kyrie,” Sturm said. “The [Black Hebrew Israelites] are there because of Kyrie Irving. We know why they are choosing Barclays. Kyrie has said that he agrees with some of what was said in that documentary, and it is unfortunate that some of it is hateful.”
“Here you have a lie, packaged as a historical documentary. Kyrie promotes it and the result is an outpouring of all kinds of hate based on this absolutely false representation,” said Dr. Steven Katz of The Elie Wiesel Center at Boston University. According to Katz, the idea that Kyrie claims he cannot be antisemitic because he is a self-proclaimed “omnist” is ridiculous. “It is like you saying ‘I am a real general’ when the US Army does not recognize you as a general, with no proof, and that everyone else (the real generals) is a liar.”
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Kyrie, throughout his years-long history of controversy has often been difficult for the media to interact with. In reality, the media has a job to do for every one of Kyrie’s games, just as he does. Given his platform, he cannot always expect the questions to remain solely on the topic of basketball.
He has, at a number of junctions, asked reporters to keep questions about basketball, when doing so would simply be bad reporting. He has also referred to journalists as “pawns.”
“Sometimes the media can be pawns. I have felt like a pawn before,” said Winfield, “like when I asked James Harden about the trade request and he ended up getting traded…I felt like a pawn in that situation. Good media makes things happen.” Winfield added that Kyrie can be condescending at times.
In terms of Nets basketball, there are still question marks around this Nets team, according to Winfield. Can they match up to the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics size-wise? Can they solve their rebounding issues? Can they stay healthy? “I think 7/11 can [win a championship], but there need to be some other numbers in there too.”
The Nets now enter a three day rest period after playing a tight schedule that has included a league-leading seven back-to-backs in 29 games. The newly coached Nets are more prepared than ever to make some noise.
Jacque Vaughn is “a real coach, he is making adjustments, considering the opponent, and it is a breath of fresh air,” Winfield said. The Nets have played great basketball under Vaughn, who is making a legitimate case to be the first midseason hire to win coach of the year.
One of the team’s best victories did not include Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, or any rotation players outside of Yuta Watanabe, Cam Thomas, and Edmond Sumner, beating the Pacers 136-133 after losing their first two matchups vs Indiana at closer to full strength. Under Nash, the Nets, “would have gotten out to a 10 point lead and lost by 25,” Winfield said.
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Kyrie will go about his life privately over this resting stretch, or maybe he won’t, likely spending time with his wife, Marlene, and two children Azurie and Kaire. He will probably squeeze in some time playing Grand Theft Auto or NBA 2K23 with Durant.
“People walk in through the doors just to see [Kyrie] play. There is a reverence for what he can do and has done,” Winfield said.
“He is a great athlete. Kyrie can slip around, through or under (any defender),” said Sturm. “The reason he is given the most-skilled label by most people is because so many of his points are highlights, he loves difficult shots. So much of what he does looks so amazing.”
Kyrie is an incredible player, but he has far more dimensions than just those of basketball. He will forever be spoken about as one of the greats, but also conversed about as the controversial individual that he is.
Sourced By:
Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News
Alec Sturm, NetsDaily, SBNation
Dr. Steven Katz, Elie Wiesel Center, Boston University