MrDollarBills wrote:
Nah, the Nets real leaders are Kevin Durant as a player and Steve Nash as the coach. Kyrie removed himself willingly from this conversation. He's not a great teammate. He's not a leader in regards to this team.
He is a great teammate. his teammates past and present unanimously confirm that. And he is a leader; as his coach and teammates have said all year... that no one works harder.
He quit. That's fine, he is free to do as he pleases but don't sit here and pretend that this guy is invested in the Nets anymore.
He didn't quit. i think thats just ignorant. things come up in life that are more important then basketball. systemic racism is one of them. Someone super close to him dying (Kobe) was one of them.
I'm honestly really sad at your viewpoint here (and that not a knock, im not going to tell or any black man how to feel so i hope you dont take it that way), because i respect you on these things. I would think you'd be 100% in support of his absence. like if this isnt valid what is? I get why you are mad at the mask thing, but he isnt sitting out because of a mask.
i believe he is 100% invested in the Nets... and 110% invested in social justice and his community. sometimes 2 things you care about are in conflict.
I hope this is just game day emotion. you seemed earlier today to have come around on Kyrie, and saying you changed your thinking a bit to just being mad about the no mask thing. seems you kind of went back once we fell behind in the game. either way, it is really hard for me to call him a bad teammate... i look at what hardens doing right now and see a bad teammate. Kyrie isnt that guy. and he isnt some fake activist out there showboating about his causes for the press. he has been commimited and hasnt changed. he didnt think they should be playing in the bubble. he doesnt feel right playing now.
I think maybe your too close to the situation. like if it was Jalen brown doing the exact same thing, i feel like you'd be applauding it but thats just my speculation, not going to speak for you on that. If Kyrie decided tommorow he was leaving indefinitely or retiring to focus on social justice id respect him even more and be thrilled with that even thought it would obviously be a big oncourt loss for the nets