The NBA (Twitter link) has announced that it is fining both All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving and his team, the Nets, for violating league rules surrounding postgame interview availability, due to Irving’s continuing resistance against partaking in media conversations after games.
Irving and Brooklyn have each been dinged to the tune of a $35K fine.
The 43-23 Nets have clinched a playoff berth and will finish the season as one of the top seeds in the East. Irving and fellow All-Stars Kevin Durant and James Harden have only appeared together for seven games thus far this season, due to a combination of injuries, COVID-19 protocols, and several personal absences on the part of Irving.
If healthy and engaged, the star-studded (and surprisingly deep) Nets appear to be one of the favorites to win the 2021 NBA title. But it remains to be seen whether or not they’ll get healthy at the right time.
Hang on KI
I used to hate kyrie, but I was wrong, his stupid nonsense is backed up by well spoken and well thought out ideas…and he is one of the sickest scorers in the game, big fan of him, unless the nba is donating that 70k to charity that’s the dumbest fine ever
Well he makes plenty of down-time to think up rationales.
From the interviews I’ve seen, his responses, while eloquent, are circuitous and ultimately have barely any substance to it. I might be a simple guy who just wants straightforward responses but Dame is more my type of interviewer.
Well thought out ideas like his idea that the earth is flat?
Fining players who don’t want to talk
It’s part of the gig KI, just accept it and do it. We all know most of the questions are stupid or agitating, so just put on your s__t eating grin and eat s__t for a few minutes after a game. If this is really the worst thing that happens to you in an average day, I’m holding the world’s smallest violin, and its playing just for you!
Seven …. 7 …. 7 only seven games together.
Remember that when they lose. Big Noise.
If the fine were a game check hed talk to anyone willing
If the league determined that team fines paid counted against their salary cap, everybody would be talking…
If I was making the money of Kyrie and I didn’t want to talk to the press, I’d be happy to pay a $35k fine. Even if you did that for an entire 82 game schedule, the fines would be less than $3 million. Kyrie (and a lot of other players) pays more than that in taxes.
Kyrie is a spoiled brat. Almost as bad as Lebron.
I wish LeBron would refuse to talk.