Over the past couple of years, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has become one of themost controversial and polarizing figures around the NBA. All of a sudden, he went from being one of the best players in the league to some kind of entitled guru, constantly calling other people out, and acting like basketball isn’t the reason why he has a platform, to begin with.
Irving has taken personal time off during the season without giving any kind of explanationas if you could just refuse to go to your job for a couple of weeks because there are more important things to do than sitting behind your desk.
More recently, the former Celtics playerrefused to discuss basketball in an interview because of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and even though we can’t demeanor that or say it’s not important, it was his cynical and overbearing attitude that really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
Stephen A. Smith Blasts Kyrie Irving Over His Never-Ending Cinism
That’s why ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith just couldn’t take it anymore and went at Kyrie for his attitude, claiming that he should stop acting like he’s the smartest person in the room and the only one who cares about social issues:
“We all care about that,” Smith said,“We don’t want to see people dying. We don’t want to see people struggling. We don’t want to see people starving. Of course, particularly if you’re Black. You have been ravaged by racism and prejudice and bigotry and being marginalized and minimized. We all go through that. This is not new to him. So when you sit up there and look at people and you say stuff like that, you’re talking to other people and you’re saying, ‘Well this might not be on your mind, but it’s on my mind.’”
Smith added that Kyrie needs to respect everybody else’s time and do the job he’s asked to do, just like the journalists trying to talk to him. Then, in his spare time, he’s free to advocate for whatever thing he believes in.
“And the fact is you don’t know. It’s just that people may have jobs to do. Like you have a job to do. So while you’re there, just do it. Do your job. Your job might actually be not just playing basketball but answering questions about it for 10 minutes,” Smith concluded.
The truth is that it’s great to see celebrities making the most of their platforms to spread awareness on these kinds of issues. The problem is that you can’t look down on everybody and be such a high-handed guy and feel like your time is worth more than everybody else’s.
You’re getting paid dozens of millions of dollars to play basketball and answer basketball-related questions. That’s a part of the job. Do your interview, and then go on social media and vow for whatever you stand for, it doesn’t have to be one or the other.