Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has been fined $25K by the NBA for directing obscene language toward a fan, the league announced today (via Twitter).
The incident took place during Monday’s game in Cleveland. Irving responded to a Cavaliers fan who was heckling him by saying, “Got y’all a championship and motherf—–s still ungrateful” (video link).
A $25K fine is a drop in the bucket for a maximum-salary player like Irving. Still, Kyrie won’t come close to earning his full $35MM base salary this season, since he’s also being fined 1/91.6th of his salary for each game he misses due to a local vaccine mandate. Today’s $25K penalty will be tacked onto the $380K+ he’s losing for each Brooklyn home game (and a select few road games).
Irving is the second Nets star to be disciplined within the last week for his choice of words. The league hit Kevin Durant with a $15K fine last Friday for using profane language during a media interview and failing to comply with an NBA Security interview as part of the review process.
Sickening to watch people throw money away so easily while so many are struggling for the same exact reasons.
lol yea but where do these fines go? I thought you a charity if some sorts.
The NBA says it goes to charity but won’t tell what charities. This is the one case where the NFL has it right. The fine money there goes to retired players with health issues.
Makes up very slightly for their BS from years ago where they elected to deny healthcare to thousands of former players.
Those “struggling people” got nothing to with why Irving makes a lot money playing basketball. He makes that much money because that’s his market value. Supply and demand. It’s simple economics.
There’s nothing “sickening” about it.
That’s not my point. It’s that Kyrie willingly chooses not to work i.e. throw money away in spite of the pandemic while others are losing their jobs because of it. Sickening.
Wasn’t Kyrie the one that “guessed” the world is flat? Always some kind of drama with this athlete… Kids are watching good parenting or otherwise…
NBA players are such babies. thats what happens when you pay them so much
not sure I see the correlation here?
Pretty sure the implication is “rich people are entitled”, which is generally true, and Irving is Exhibit A for money and success going to someone’s head. His ego is too big for his own good.
Ok that is a much different argument. Saying that NBA players are babies because they make a lot of money doesn’t explain all the players that don’t act like babies that also get paid millions.
LeBron and Draymond Green’s swing to Bron’s nuts got them that championship, not Kyrie. But what else do you expect from this moron?
@richt
LBJ needed Kyrie and vice versa. Kyrie averaged 33 pts per game including a great game 6 when he scored 41 points on 70% shooting. He also with 56 seconds left in game 7 with the score tied 89/89 he hit the game winning 3 to go up 92-89. He also set up LBJ for an attempted dunk that LBJ missed but was fouled hard on the play. He hit 1 of 2 of his foul shots to make the final score 93 to 89.
Fun fact. Aside from the teams with Durant the Warriors have NEVER beaten the Cavs in the finals with Irving and Love playing. In 2014-15 Love had his shoulder ripped out it’s socket vs the Celtics and Kyrie fractured his left knee cap in game 1 vs GSW.
33 points averaged in games 5, 6 and 7 is what Im referring to.
Yes of course. His comment makes it sound like he believes he was the main guy who brought that ring to Cleveland, though.
I was under the impression kyrie didn’t care what people thought of him.
25k is an absolute joke for a max player. Fine him 10% of his salary.
1/365 of his salary is a little under 100k. Fine him that. It will hurt enough that he’ll pay attention. Fining Irving 25k is like fining a person who make $60,000 per year 40 bucks. Not a real big deal.
Kyrie had a good point though. Not sure why he can’t speak to a heckling fan like that if he wants to.
Totally agree! I fail to see that Kyrie did anything wrong in here… some fans are just crybabies, right?
What’s wrong with a heckler getting some back? The heckler retort: “just one”… That was lame, but KI did leave early, after ’17. Kind of an odd heckler-hate, saying we wanted you longer.
Anyway. Overreaction by the league. Maybe bc a kid was involved, but still… kid is probably bragging on it, not hurting.
How do nba players allow fan taunts to get in their head. But, by their own admission, loved and adored by their own trash talking eliteness. Constant new articles written about player trash talking going back forever.
The awesome Burns dished out by nba players. Oh so exciting. Its written as if the nba is built on a tradition of trash talking. The ability to dish it out , but never let it affect them. ……But them fans tho. Them fans can surely get into their heads.