Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving didn’t travel to Boston when his team took on the Boston Celtics, his former team, in a heavily-anticipated matchup.
However, he was clearly paying attention, as he crafted a lengthy post on his Instagram story in what seemed like a clear response to the throngs of Celtics fans who couldn’t wait to boo him on Wednesday. The post was largely about the media that became the driving force behind the narrative that he’s a locker room cancer and an individual that’s difficult to be around.
Here’s what Irving’s message had to say, in full, courtesy of The Athletic’s Jared Weiss:
“It happens all the time and tonight just goes to shows how Sports/Entertainment will always be ignorant and obtrusive. It’s one big SHOW that actually means very, very little in the real world that most people live in because there are actually things that matter going on within it.
Like figuring out a life that means more to you than a d— ball going through the hoop, or learning how to grow up in a fish bowl of a society based on your popularity level as a person, or even dealing with becoming the leader of your family after someone’s passing and not knowing how to deal with life after it happens.”
We’ll stop here, briefly, to analyze the first segment of Irving’s statement.
Irving has routinely stated his belief that sports entertainment, or just entertainment in generally, is relatively irrelevant due to the amount of issues that are far more important both on a macro or micro level.
He’s also discussed feeling like, as many athletes do, a fish in a fish bowl; an individual just there to entertain rather than an individual assessed and treated as other human beings are.
However, the statement about “someone’s passing” (an allusion to his grandfather) forcing him into a leadership role within his family that he didn’t once have is relatively new, though it provides additional context for Irving’s off-court frustrations last year.
At just 27-years-old, in the prime of his life and career but on a team that would soon struggle while looking for him to be a ball of positive energy, Irving was put in a position that often brings out the best in people. Yet, while that process doesn’t always yield that results and isn’t always a smooth transition, it usually doesn’t come with an — at least at the time — undesired spotlight.
Nobody can doubt or deny that Irving, a showman on the court, enjoys being in the limelight.
But there’s not many of us that would enjoy so much attention at that time in our life or, if those are issues Irving is still dealing with, now.
Irving continues: “[But] this game of sports entertainment matters than someone’s mental health and well-being, right? Or the real life things that happen to people everyday but they still have to perform for the NBA and it’s fans? Right? It’s all about doing it for the fans and the organization that love[s] you so much?”
“Think again,” Irving says. “It’s a game and promoted as a fandom experience for the ticket buyers and viewers at home, while defacing who people truly are as PEOPLE. Then spat out over all these media networks as valuable food for thought while they actually believe their opinions hold weight to real cultural leaders that speak and act for change.
One big gimmick with some smoke and mirrors! I’ll always be the one that takes a stand and speaks on the truth every time though.”
In this second segment, not only does Irving admit — for a second time — that his grandfather’s passing effected his mental health (to the point where he sought out a professional therapist) but he also takes aim at the media for misrepresenting his character.
Even if he doesn’t personally read the stories, you would have to live under a rock to have missed Irving’s turn from NBA darling to media heel in Boston. There have been too many stories to count that Irving appears as villainous in, with a notable piece from ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan (who is a lifelong Celtics fan) even seeking to further besmirch his name just a month ago.
Irving took issue with the narrative surrounding him then, too.
Finishing up his post, Irving offers a characteristically philosophical take on the intersection between life and basketball:
“A purposeful and spiritually-led life will always be bigger and more meaningful than any sports arena or any entertainment space. This GAME isn’t meant to be controlled and shown as a drama. It’s meant to show the LOVE. Love for the art is the only damn thing that keeps the purist people in this giant sports/entertainment circus.
Don’t fall for the game that’s played in front of you as entertainment[.] It’ll never be as serious as dealing with LIFE.”
Returning to the theme that the lives people lead are more important than the games they play in, Irving makes an interesting note here as he effectively says the only reason a person like him continues to play in the NBA despite the media “circus” is his love for the game.
You could take that as Irving being thin-skinned but, whatever the case, he appears to have considered retiring from the game prematurely because he’s tired of being misrepresented to the point where he feels demonized for displaying any negative emotion.
That doesn’t sound like a fun life to live. Which is saying something for a man with the riches and global fame that Irving has amassed.
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