“I don’t recall Kyrie Irving at any point saying, ‘here is your money back’”: Stephen A Smith lays into Nets star for his latest leave of absence for ‘personal reasons’

Stephen A Smith bashes Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving for taking far too many days off this season following his latest leave of absence. 

Kyrie Irving it seems is in the news every week. The player has had some good press, as well as some really, really bad press. This one of the biggest reasons why many consider the Brooklyn Nets star to be one of the most controversial players in the history of the NBA.

A storyline that refuses to go away for the star, is his absence from the team on multiple occasions due to personal reasons. The first time it happened this campaign, ended with footage of a player in a party being found. The second time though there seemed to be no trouble.

However, the player is reportedly going to miss the franchise’s next game due to personal reasons once again. And it seems that Stephen A Smith is having absolutely none of it.

Also Read: Sixers’ Joel Embiid backs himself to finish the season strong and make his case for a first-ever MVP trophy over Nikola Jokic, LeBron James 

Stephen A Smith places some well-deserved criticism on Kyrie Irving

ESPN analyst Stephen A Smith has become infamous for making some of the best controversial statements on television. He has made countless hot takes that have earned him endless amounts of backlash over the course of his career.

The man is just an experienced veteran at this type of thing. So needless to say, he wasted no time in reacting with some serious passion to the situation at hand.

What the hell is going on with KYRIE? pic.twitter.com/JUtoH59fli

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 12, 2021

Countless NBA analysts have been a bit fearful about commenting on the Kyrie Irving situation. After all, if it is a matter of mental health, just about anything they say can be held against them.

However, Stephen A Smith has never let that affect him, for better or for worse. And here, to be completely honest, the Knicks fan is right.

Kyrie Irving is one of the Brooklyn Nets’ biggest pieces. For a player of that stature of any franchise to take as many leaves as he has is unheard of.

Even if there is an issue that the player needs to tend to immediately, there needs to be a limit after which he takes responsibility. Being absent from the team is fine, but these constant absences being continually excused and paid for by the franchise can’t sit well with the others on the team.

The NBA champion is one of the leaders of this team. It is partially on him to set the right tone for the rest of the franchise, on and off the court. But, if this goes on, the right culture would fail to be set within the Nets.

And as was seen with the Clippers last season, if things go wrong, the finger could be pointed at Kyrie Irving by his own teammates in the end.

Also Read: Shannon Sharpe appears to misconstrue the Nets star’s statements while trying to criticize him on Undisputed

About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.

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