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CHICAGO – Against the backdrop of a devastating pandemic and a host of preseason games, a “war of words” is brewing in the NBA.
However, this one is strange because it is missing the key ingredient.
Words.
Kyrie Irving, the mercurial point guard for the Brooklyn Nets, has decided to boycott the media in this upcoming 2020-21 season, issuing a statement saying that “my goal is to let my work on and off the court speak for itself. “.
He has been fined $ 25,000 so far. The NBA insists that Irving speaks into a microphone in front of reporters.
Irving is a different cat, one who once insisted the world was flat, so I don’t even pretend to know what the hell he’s thinking.
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People have lost their lives fighting for their freedom of expression, but here is a famous athlete who chose to silence his megaphone and squandered the opportunity for a powerful voice making a difference in the crusade for social justice.
If this $ 25,000 fine is also applied to each of the 72 games on next season’s schedule, Irving could lose $ 1.8 million in fines.
But don’t expect that pile of money to make Irving move his lips and become as talkative as a drunkard. His salary for 2020-21 is $ 462,904,167 per game.
By Marc Stein from The New York TimesIt took Mark Cuban 20 years and two months of owning the Dallas Mavericks to rack up “publicly known” fines of $ 3.1 million as of March of this year.
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Irving could get halfway there in just one season in Brooklyn.
I really don’t give a damn if Irving refuses to speak to us in the media, “pawns” as he alluded to. It’s your money, your lips.
What is not yours, however, is the decision of where your fines go.
“I pray that we use the ‘fine money’ for underserved communities in need,” Irving said via Instagram.
No
It doesn’t work that way. The NBA has designated charities that will benefit from this and Irving won’t be able to say where or how much.
Allowing Irving to dictate where your fines go will mean tolerating, allowing wrong because something good somehow justifies it.
This is not how things work in this round universe.
The six-time All-Star can be brainwashed into believing he is defending a worthy cause. But I won’t be fooled.
The only cause here is Kyrie Irving.
And I cannot attribute any kind of nobility or martyrdom to a player who blatantly defies a contractually obligated role in his contract.
Irving must understand that his insane salary is paid through billions of dollars of broadcast rights from the very media that he refuses to participate in.
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How silly is that!
For now, Irving’s hiccups are a harmless whisper, but as the games become more meaningful, the silence will ring louder and become a major headache for the NBA and a distraction for the Nets.
And because the money obviously won’t get the charming Kyrie to budge, perhaps a suspension will, a move that will definitely cause trouble in the NBA Players Association.
“It will be fun to watch the Brooklyn Nets this season,” former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala said in a tweet.
He is right. Until Kyrie Irving blows things up.
Lest we forget, there are still embers left from the bridges he burned in Cleveland and Boston.
