Kyrie Irving may be a lost cause for the Brooklyn Nets – can the Lakers handle the Diva?
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Kyrie Irving may no longer be the fresh-faced boy he once was – like the Warner Brothers logo for every Harry Potter movie, he’s gotten progressively broodier. Every year after leaving the Cavaliers, he’s been involved in some form of controversy or the other – last year was the biggest. Refusing to play because he did not believe in science, Kyrie was seen as a problem child who could not be saved.
He lost the fans, lost the confidence of the board, and is about to lose the endorsement of Nike. But, there could be a redemption arc in the making. For Kyrie has an out – an out that would take him across the land to a different coast. If Brooklyn is cold, hard, and distant, LA is warm, sunny, and Hollywood. And Hollywood he is because my god has he loved the spotlight.
If Kyrie does leave Brooklyn, he gets to start fresh with the man who gave him the most success – LeBron James – and rescue a sinking ship that is his sneaker deal. 30 million is a large sum, but in the long run, it makes more sense to move than stay.
What if Kyrie leaving $30 mil on the table isn’t THAT crazy? There are talks Nike may not renew its shoe deal. Being a Laker would make him more marketable & might SAVE his shoe deal. Which would be worth more in the long run than the $30+ mil he’d get to stay with the Nets. 🤔
— Matter of Stats Podcast (@MatterOfStatsP) June 26, 2022
Kyrie Irving was hand-picked by Kevin Durant as a teammate – his leaving may cause an implosion
Imagine being a Nets fan last year – Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden with solid role players and a chance to win the championship. Fast forward 10 or so months and they now have a perennially injured Ben Simmons, an unsettled Kyrie, and a Durant who’s considering quitting if he leaves.
What started as a super team of epic proportions, could end with a guy who refuses to shoot a 3. People may laugh at the Knicks (and rightly so) but the Nets aren’t so far either.
Brooklyn may have the best pizza in the tri-state area, but their sports teams, meh. One has the history (Lombardi’s) and the other, overrated (Grimaldi’s).
Since the rumors of him leaving have surfaced, he’s posted a cryptic tweet and the mills have been churning. Russell Westbrook has been shopped around by the Lakers quite a bit, and a swap deal could be possible, provided a few extra additions are thrown in.
If that does happen, the 2014 Brooklyn fiasco just found its second innings. A championship may never go to New York again. Spike Lee and Stephen A Smith would have never seen a parade in their city, in their whole adult lives.