Kyrie Irving ruffled some feathers when he made comments about Brooklyn’s current roster following Wednesday’s loss. Whether it was his remark about the Nets needing to add one or two pieces, or the fact he specifically mentioned which players are, in his mind, part of the solution — himself, Kevin Durant, Garrett Temple, DeAndre Jordan, Caris LeVert, Wilson Chandler and Spencer Dinwiddie — what Irving said sounded similar to what went down in Boston.
Some have been critical of the Nets point guard, including Basketball Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley.
During Thursday night’s broadcast of the NBA on TNT, Barkley praised last year’s Nets team, while expressing a different sentiment when it came to Irving:
OK, if I’m a coach — first of all, I’m going to pull him aside and say, ‘Young man, that’ ain’t your job to criticize our team.’ We bragged the last year, we said all year that New Jersey team plays hard every single night — Brooklyn. They really, really compete. And then you add, let’s say we don’t even need KD [Kevin Durant], we bring in Kyrie, we made the playoffs without you.
Kenny Smith added the Nets should be the fourth seed. Barkley continued:
For you to come in here and then play half the season, then say, ‘Well, we’re just not that good, we’re missing some big pieces.’ Like, naw dude, we made the playoffs without you last year. We’re bringing in an All-Star player, we should be a top-four seed easily.
Charles reacts to Kyrie Irving's comments after the Nets loss last night đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/qWHE82RDrv
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) January 17, 2020
Clearly, Barkley isn’t big on Irving right now.
Also, good to know he got the memo that the Nets are no longer in New Jersey. They’ve only been in Brooklyn since 2012.
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