The NBA will resume the 2019-20 season in Orlando, and Kyrie Irving apparently isn’t happy about it.
“I don’t support going to Orlando,” Irving reportedly said during a conference call consisting of over 80 players from the NBA and WNBA, as he apparently wants players to boycott the rest of the season.
Irving’s former teammate, Kendrick Perkins, couldn’t help but roll his eyes.
“He’s not a powerful voice; he’s a popular voice,” Perkins said of Irving on The DA Show. “There’s a difference between being powerful and popular. Powerful, you’re actually moving the needle. No one is listening to Kyrie. The NBA is going to continue. All he’s doing is causing unnecessary drama between the NBA brothers that we don’t need right now. Him lashing out is just making news and making a whole bunch of noise for nothing because the NBA season is going to happen. LeBron James wants to play. Chris Paul wants to play. Russell Westbrook wants to play. Anthony Davis, Giannis – when they first voted for the NBA to come back, the vote was 28-0. Everybody wants to play.
“Right now, all Kyrie is doing is just trying to throw a wrench in something, but he don’t have the power to do so,” Perkins continued. “When you’re powerful, you actually move the needle. Kyrie is not moving the needle. All he’s doing is ruffling the feathers for no reason. The NBA is going to continue.”
Irving, it seems, has wanted to be the center of attention throughout his career, but he often makes headlines for the wrong reasons.
“It’s crazy because he wanted to leave Cleveland and have his own team and he got tired of being under LeBron’s shadow,” Perkins said. “We saw how things worked out in Boston – not well at all. Then when he got to the Brooklyn Nets, we’ve seen some of the confrontations [and] problems he was causing there. Gong to the media, saying we got to get better – and there’s still 45 games left in the season. Guys going out there, playing their hearts out. Even if you do feel that way, you don’t say that to the public. You just let it happen and you talk behind the scenes.”
Irving, 28, may have also played a significant role in the Nets’ decision to fire Kenny Atkinson.
“Those types of things is unnecessary,” Perkins said. “He’s just known for bringing up drama all the time for no reason. Why are you stirring the pot? We don’t need that right now. A lot of times, we don’t need to hear his voice anyway. Kyrie is a helluva basketball player. Sometimes just because you’re the best basketball player don’t make you the leader of the team. That’s not how it works a lot of times.”