Official Welcome Home Kyrie Thread

[Prokorov]

There's no NBA without fans. We literally pay for the product. I don't have to know anything about his personal life...but I think I am owed an explanation for why he's not out there playing for the team that I support with my money with regards to viewership, merchandise, tickets (during non-COVID times).

you got an explanation. Personal reasons. you deserve nothing beyond that.

And when there's a disconnect, like when he's at a birthday party without a mask, and he's at a town hall meeting during a game, he should address it.

Outisde of the mask, no he shouldnt.

Who the hell is any fan to demand anything about when kyrie decides to spend time with his family? or when he decides to attend community events? Fans who think thats ok need to get over themselves

I mean, he is an employee that's under contract. He is OBLIGATED to play basketball for us. He can't just not play for an extended period of time because of social issues. That's a violation of his contract.

he 100% can and it 100% is not in violation.

[therealbig3]

There's no NBA without fans. We literally pay for the product. I don't have to know anything about his personal life...but I think I am owed an explanation for why he's not out there playing for the team that I support with my money with regards to viewership, merchandise, tickets (during non-COVID times).

you got an explanation. Personal reasons. you deserve nothing beyond that.

And when there's a disconnect, like when he's at a birthday party without a mask, and he's at a town hall meeting during a game, he should address it.

Outisde of the mask, no he shouldnt.

Who the hell is any fan to demand anything about when kyrie decides to spend time with his family? or when he decides to attend community events? Fans who think thats ok need to get over themselves

I mean, he is an employee that's under contract. He is OBLIGATED to play basketball for us. He can't just not play for an extended period of time because of social issues. That's a violation of his contract.

he 100% can and it 100% is not in violation.

You're wrong. Just like you were wrong about when he didn't talk to the media, how they couldn't fine him for it. Turns out they did.

And this is the problem with not talking to the media. You get this unexplained absence from Kyrie and nobody gets any answers as to why.

[Prokorov]

You're wrong. Just like you were wrong about when he didn't talk to the media, how they couldn't fine him for it. Turns out they did.

No i was right, as usually you completely misrepresented what i said. and im 100% right here. you just cant handle when im right, especially after the allen crabbe joe harris thing. let it go. how many time do you have to say you are going to put me on ignore before you do it?

And this is the problem with not talking to the media. You get this unexplained absence from Kyrie and nobody gets any answers as to why.

the people who need to have awnsers have awnsers. the fans deserve nothing more then what they have already gotten. "personnel reasons"

but the emotional knee-jerk fans here cant handle that

[Shark]

I've discussed this a lot already on other discussion forums already, so I'll try my best to briefly summarize how I feel about this. As someone who has been very supportive of Kyrie as a Net here, I'm deeply disappointed and angry with him. I do feel he has been wrongly criticized a lot over his time here, but this is different. There's nothing malicious or bad intent about what he's doing in that video imo, I actually don't have an issue with it at all. The problem is that he has been AWOL for a week without any public reasons, and we find him dancing at his sister's birthday party, while NBA games are going on. I don't have a problem with spending time with your family but I don't understand the need to miss games because of that. My guess is that Kyrie's reasoning for missing time is far beyond birthday parties, but it's a terrible look nonetheless unless explained.

Then tonight, we saw that he participated in a virtual town hall type meeting while we had a game going on. Again, there's nothing malicious about it, infact, it's a great thing that he's actively participating in things like these, but why is the timing of these things taking priority over his NBA career, when his team is already short handed and struggling? He has a lot of explaining to do to the fans and the Nets organization imo, and anyone trying to downplay this, I'm not with it. I genuinely believe that Kyrie is a good dude and he has good intentions, but he's just incredibly misguided at times.

I dont think Kyrie could possibly handle this any better. Nothing good comes from him making it public instead of private. it would just get twisted 1000 times.

he was at his sisters birthday party. i would hope so.

he was involved in a town hall. i would hope so.

he missed some basketball games. not all that important in the grand scheme of things, with everything thats going on. with the terror attcks on the capital, being with family and involve in the community is more important then basketball. i wish more guys on our team took such a big involvement.

This is where I'm at with this whole thing. Still think it was a silly to celebrate his sister's birthday with a bunch of other people without masks. And I get that maybe he wanted to spend some time with his family in the wake of everything that is going on in the country, but he also put his family at risk considering KD and TJ had to miss games due to COVID protocols.

Also do think that if he is using some of this time to be active in getting criminal justice reform by showing support for a DA candidate then I'm all for it. Some things are bigger than basketball and if he wants to use his name to bring attention to an issue as important as criminal justice reform then do that. Am I disappointed as a Nets fan? Sure. But am I going to pretend like he was just playing around on some nonsense Zoom meeting? No.

[Prokorov]

I've discussed this a lot already on other discussion forums already, so I'll try my best to briefly summarize how I feel about this. As someone who has been very supportive of Kyrie as a Net here, I'm deeply disappointed and angry with him. I do feel he has been wrongly criticized a lot over his time here, but this is different. There's nothing malicious or bad intent about what he's doing in that video imo, I actually don't have an issue with it at all. The problem is that he has been AWOL for a week without any public reasons, and we find him dancing at his sister's birthday party, while NBA games are going on. I don't have a problem with spending time with your family but I don't understand the need to miss games because of that. My guess is that Kyrie's reasoning for missing time is far beyond birthday parties, but it's a terrible look nonetheless unless explained.

Then tonight, we saw that he participated in a virtual town hall type meeting while we had a game going on. Again, there's nothing malicious about it, infact, it's a great thing that he's actively participating in things like these, but why is the timing of these things taking priority over his NBA career, when his team is already short handed and struggling? He has a lot of explaining to do to the fans and the Nets organization imo, and anyone trying to downplay this, I'm not with it. I genuinely believe that Kyrie is a good dude and he has good intentions, but he's just incredibly misguided at times.

I dont think Kyrie could possibly handle this any better. Nothing good comes from him making it public instead of private. it would just get twisted 1000 times.

he was at his sisters birthday party. i would hope so.

he was involved in a town hall. i would hope so.

he missed some basketball games. not all that important in the grand scheme of things, with everything thats going on. with the terror attcks on the capital, being with family and involve in the community is more important then basketball. i wish more guys on our team took such a big involvement.

This is where I'm at with this whole thing. Still think it was a silly to celebrate his sister's birthday with a bunch of other people without masks. And I get that maybe he wanted to spend some time with his family in the wake of everything that is going on in the country, but he also put his family at risk considering KD and TJ had to miss games due to COVID protocols.

Also do think that if he is using some of this time to be active in getting criminal justice reform by showing support for a DA candidate then I'm all for it. Some things are bigger than basketball and if he wants to use his name to bring attention to an issue as important as criminal justice reform then do that. Am I disappointed as a Nets fan? Sure. But am I going to pretend like he was just playing around on some nonsense Zoom meeting? No.

Yeah i mean its not like he is getting caught at strip clubs like some guys.... some people are saying trade him for Harden when harden is out going to clubs really partying and being disruptive to his team.

the zoom call thing is just idiotic to criticize. yeah he is not playing tonight... the idea that him sitting alone with the lights off reading is somehow any better then being active in trying to combat systemic racism when he is pretty much sitting out due to be distraught over white supremecy literally running wild is just tone def and fans thinking basketball is more important then real life

[NyCeEvO]

I don’t like speculating, especially without hard evidence to support my claims, but I’ve been wondering whether he’s “soul searching” and contemplating retirement.

He could very well be using his time to get a feel for how life would be without basketball and to assess whether he will miss the game if he’s not playing.

My thoughts could be wildly off-base, so I’ll wait until we hear from Kyrie and/or the organization before I write a much longer post.

This was a small thought in the back of my mind when this first started but Sean Marks juxtaposing Kyrie’s absence and the team’s “organizational goals” in his statement has me thinking that it might not be that far off.

[righterwriter]

I dont think Kyrie could possibly handle this any better. Nothing good comes from him making it public instead of private. it would just get twisted 1000 times.

he was at his sisters birthday party. i would hope so.

he was involved in a town hall. i would hope so.

he missed some basketball games. not all that important in the grand scheme of things, with everything thats going on. with the terror attcks on the capital, being with family and involve in the community is more important then basketball. i wish more guys on our team took such a big involvement.

This is where I'm at with this whole thing. Still think it was a silly to celebrate his sister's birthday with a bunch of other people without masks. And I get that maybe he wanted to spend some time with his family in the wake of everything that is going on in the country, but he also put his family at risk considering KD and TJ had to miss games due to COVID protocols.

Also do think that if he is using some of this time to be active in getting criminal justice reform by showing support for a DA candidate then I'm all for it. Some things are bigger than basketball and if he wants to use his name to bring attention to an issue as important as criminal justice reform then do that. Am I disappointed as a Nets fan? Sure. But am I going to pretend like he was just playing around on some nonsense Zoom meeting? No.

Yeah i mean its not like he is getting caught at strip clubs like some guys.... some people are saying trade him for Harden when harden is out going to clubs really partying and being disruptive to his team.

the zoom call thing is just idiotic to criticize. yeah he is not playing tonight... the idea that him sitting alone with the lights off reading is somehow any better then being active in trying to combat systemic racism when he is pretty much sitting out due to be distraught over white supremecy literally running wild is just tone def and fans thinking basketball is more important then real life

And that statement, ladies and gentlemen, is why Kyrie Irving and every other entitled athlete thinks they have carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Progress apparently means allowing a guy making $40M/yr to ignore his agreements, quit on his team, disregard community safety, and have zero responsibility or accountability because of (pick some event happening on the news that makes someone think they are suffering from racism).

Quite a society we've all enabled. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

[bleedblue3303]

Hopefully a lawyer can answer this one for me. If Kyrie Iriving is missing games for personal reasons, or for his quest to inform about injustice, couldn't the nets void his contract for breach of contract. I've always been curious about things like this. The Nets go into a contract in good faith expecting Kyrie to play basketball. If Kyrie is unavailable to do so for other reasons than an injury aren't the Nets in their legal rights to terminate that contract.
Not saying the Nets should just curious if they could.

[gigantes]

Yeah, it's mainly the lack of communication right now. If you're going to miss time for undisclosed personal reasons, but then do other things publicly (like birthday parties and town hall meetings) while games are going on, and not follow protocols for one of those things (maskless at the party), then you really do owe an explanation to the fans imo. We are paying for the product through our viewership, so we do deserve an explanation for why he's not playing.

Fans deserve absolutely ZERO when it comes to kyrie, her personal life, or his private life. and its insanely entitely to think that would even remotely be true.

There's no NBA without fans. We literally pay for the product. I don't have to know anything about his personal life...but I think I am owed an explanation for why he's not out there playing for the team that I support with my money with regards to viewership, merchandise, tickets (during non-COVID times).

And when there's a disconnect, like when he's at a birthday party without a mask, and he's at a town hall meeting during a game, he should address it.

I mean, he is an employee that's under contract. He is OBLIGATED to play basketball for us. He can't just not play for an extended period of time because of social issues. That's a violation of his contract.

Yeah, it immediately creates a double standard. So Kyrie's enabled to take a stretch of games off for whatever reasons he feels like, but nobody else on the team has that luxury? How could other members of the team possibly not be annoyed by that? (if not outright resent it?)

I could understand this a lot better if his rep said something like: "Kyrie agrees to take no salary during his leave," but the fans are paying him a fortune at this point to do whatever he feels like these days, with evidently little communication from him to the team. But as co-captain of the team, players union VP, and top-paid superstar who's been catered to in many ways by the team, he absolutely DOES owe everyone an explanation IMO. That would be being a leader.

You can be misunderstood in some ways, but still a leader IMO. It's almost like Kyrie wants to twist the knife sometimes, though.

[MrDollarBills]

Man, between D-Will and Kyrie, we have a knack for bringing in diva PGs that are more trouble than they're worth.

Kyrie said he wanted to be liked Kidd, but he's quickly headed down the path of D-Will who left here being hated and despised.

He has time to party and attend Zoom meetings, Joe Tsai needs to ask for his money back.

Meanwhile, KD shows up for work and cares about winning, making teammates better, and trying to compete.

No more excuses for Kyrie. He has failed to hold up his end of the bargain.

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Kyrie has been an enormous asset for this team and its path forward. a great teammate and great for the community. He is now and will continue to help us get to the a title.

How, by sitting his ass at home? He isn't helping the Nets right now, in fact he is becoming a distraction and the team is hurting without his help on the court. We need him and he bailed on the team.

I know you want to be a good fan and support our guy, so do I, but let's be real here: he is not fulfilling his obligations that he signed on for.


I think he's a great asset to the community, I love that he wants to create change. I have no issue with that. That's fine and all, but if he doesn't want to play anymore he needs to stop jerking the team around. If he can't multi task then call it a day so that the team can move on.

[MrDollarBills]

Boston and Cleveland fans were right about him and it's high time that we acknowledge it.

Kyrie didn't even hesitate to **** this team over. KD signed up to play with him and in turn dude bails on him.

The worst part is that we are so far over the cap that even if his contract comes off the books we can't do anything to make the team better.

This guy played 27 games for this team and said screw it. He might be even worse than Deron Williams.

[xinxin]

What’s sadder here is seeing some fans defending this kind of behavior & attitude.

If Kylie thinks so little of basketball at this point because there are more important things out there... ( & he has every right to to do what he thinks is right). Then he should just retire. Terminate his agreement with the nets, So that the Nets will be freed from the obligation to pay him.. so that everyone can move on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Prokorov]

This is where I'm at with this whole thing. Still think it was a silly to celebrate his sister's birthday with a bunch of other people without masks. And I get that maybe he wanted to spend some time with his family in the wake of everything that is going on in the country, but he also put his family at risk considering KD and TJ had to miss games due to COVID protocols.

Also do think that if he is using some of this time to be active in getting criminal justice reform by showing support for a DA candidate then I'm all for it. Some things are bigger than basketball and if he wants to use his name to bring attention to an issue as important as criminal justice reform then do that. Am I disappointed as a Nets fan? Sure. But am I going to pretend like he was just playing around on some nonsense Zoom meeting? No.

Yeah i mean its not like he is getting caught at strip clubs like some guys.... some people are saying trade him for Harden when harden is out going to clubs really partying and being disruptive to his team.

the zoom call thing is just idiotic to criticize. yeah he is not playing tonight... the idea that him sitting alone with the lights off reading is somehow any better then being active in trying to combat systemic racism when he is pretty much sitting out due to be distraught over white supremecy literally running wild is just tone def and fans thinking basketball is more important then real life

And that statement, ladies and gentlemen, is why Kyrie Irving and every other entitled athlete thinks they have carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Progress apparently means allowing a guy making $40M/yr to ignore his agreements, quit on his team, disregard community safety, and have zero responsibility or accountability because of (pick some event happening on the news that makes someone think they are suffering from racism).

Quite a society we've all enabled. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Again, entitled fans thinking they are important or owed something.

Making $40 million os $40 billion dollars is irrelevant. its excused or its not. if its not a portion of that money will be taken from him per CBA guidelines, etc.

"makes someone *think* they are suffering from racism" is complete white supremacist nonsense.... especially for Kyrie, who has been at the forefront of these battles for some time now.

Criticising a zoom call is just 100% nonsense. Again, what is allowed if not that? sitting in a room with the lights off hiding under his bed motionless?

Is a zoom for something to combat social justice issues is warranted what is?

What if it was church group?

What if it was a therapy group?

What if it was... mind your business because it doesnt matter he can choose to do whatever he wants.

Mask thing we covered, deserves criticism and he will face fine/suspension pending the results of the review. the rest is personal stuff Kyrie owes zero to anyone to justify

[Prokorov]

How, by sitting his ass at home? He isn't helping the Nets right now, in fact he is becoming a distraction and the team is hurting without his help on the court. We need him and he bailed on the team.

He did not bail on the team. its important for players to take care of themselves first be it physical, mental, or emotional. And yeah, by sitting at home and doing whatever is required to get him back to being focused on basketball. Bailing on the team is what James Harden is doing, not what Kyrie is doing.

And there is no such thing as no distraction, he was getting assasinated in the media in the preseason before any of this happened. with a megastar there is always distraciton, its part of the way it goes. look at lebron.

I know you want to be a good fan and support our guy, so do I, but let's be real here: he is not fulfilling his obligations that he signed on for.

I have no issue trashing any of our guys, as i have several times in the past for on (Levert, Lopez, etc) or off (Kurucs). To me, there is no better reason to be away from the team then personal issues. Be it something like lose of a family member or systemic racism running rampant in the country.

I think he's a great asset to the community, I love that he wants to create change. I have no issue with that. That's fine and all, but if he doesn't want to play anymore he needs to stop jerking the team around. If he can't multi task then call it a day so that the team can move on.

I'm sure he will do that if it comes to it... These are unprecedented times. White supremicists where just aided by police to committ one of the greatest terror attacks on this country. its not like some cop just pulled over someone for blasting rap music (also not ok) and he was triggered by that.

As i said in the other thread, sometimes things you are committed to are in conflict and its tough to do both. Kyrie is doing the right thing for him and team. I'd rather he not be on the floor if he is struggling with this

[Prokorov]

Boston and Cleveland fans were right about him and it's high time that we acknowledge it.

they werent and the false media charecter assasinations have been proven, as have the lazy narrative his teams win more without him (proven statisically several times over)

Kyrie didn't even hesitate to **** this team over. KD signed up to play with him and in turn dude bails on him.

Neither of those things happen, and his teammates have supported him. they are brothers as levert said.

The worst part is that we are so far over the cap that even if his contract comes off the books we can't do anything to make the team better.

This guy played 27 games for this team and said screw it. He might be even worse than Deron Williams.

He didnt say that. he said nothing close to that. if he retired tommorow he already did more then deron williams. Kyrie is one of the greatest things to ever happen to the nets

[Prokorov]

Durant on Kyrie:

"“I won’t speak on Kyrie. I’ll let him do that for himself,” Durant said. “I’m sure you guys will see him soon whenever he comes back and we support him 100 percent."

I know its disappointing not having Kyrie on the floor. I love watching the dude play and am super disappointed too. but its important to see the bigger picture. Guys not pulling a Harden. he didnt bail on his team. he is dealing with personal stuff during a time of great distress in this country. His teammates clearly dont feel like he bailed on them and support him. The team is clearly ok with it at this point, verifying its an excused absence.

Everyone wants more info, but 1) Kyrie owes no one info on his personal life and 2) the team knows anything they say will be spun as negatively as possible.

sucks to wait, sucks not to know, but the anger in my opinion is very displaced. And I really dont get the "trade Kyrie for Harden" stuff as a response. Don't get me wrong, I still want Harden, but people who are like "kyrie is bailing on his team and is out partying" are clamoring for a trade for a guy who is ACTUALLY bailing on his team and ACTUALLY out partying

[strokerace]

Durant on Kyrie:

"“I won’t speak on Kyrie. I’ll let him do that for himself,” Durant said. “I’m sure you guys will see him soon whenever he comes back and we support him 100 percent."

I know its disappointing not having Kyrie on the floor. I love watching the dude play and am super disappointed too. but its important to see the bigger picture. Guys not pulling a Harden. he didnt bail on his team. he is dealing with personal stuff during a time of great distress in this country. His teammates clearly dont feel like he bailed on them and support him. The team is clearly ok with it at this point, verifying its an excused absence.

Everyone wants more info, but 1) Kyrie owes no one info on his personal life and 2) the team knows anything they say will be spun as negatively as possible.

sucks to wait, sucks not to know, but the anger in my opinion is very displaced. And I really dont get the "trade Kyrie for Harden" stuff as a response. Don't get me wrong, I still want Harden, but people who are like "kyrie is bailing on his team and is out partying" are clamoring for a trade for a guy who is ACTUALLY bailing on his team and ACTUALLY out partying

You are the very definition of a stan.

[Claud]

We are trying to win a chip here and I feel his off the court shenanigans has potential to tear our team apart.

It's like his focus isn't set on winning basketball games anymore.

I understand what occured was tramautic to many people so I sympathized with him.

The problem is what is he ACTUALLY DOING ABOUT IT?

If you're not showing up to work as a protest then where is his message? what is his mission? Why aren't there other players joining him? Why hasn't he at least released some sort of statement explaining his situation?

And the truth of the matter is MILLIONS of people felt the same but guess what? We all had to go to work and continue to live our lives. If you're protesting at least be smart enough to explain your position and what you're trying to accomplish.

Even the members of congress STAYED until 4am to certify the election and got the job done but Kyrie can't be bothered to play ball?

He's just been MIA while his brothers are out on the court bustin ass. This isn't what leaders do, period.

Not to mention he gets caught partying at some club during a pandemic that's killed millions of people + the NBA has a strict COVID protocol which would mean he'd have to miss significant time due to his exposure at said club. Just all around stupity by his part.

For someone who considers himself to be "aware" and "conscious" he sure as **** comes off as self-involved and IGNORANT.

I'm willing to give Kyrie the benefit of the doubt since he's an integral part of our championship aspirations + has been Nets fan but it's become incredibly hard to defend his actions.

I did not want to believe pundits and fans talking all the **** about Kyrie but he isn't doing himself any favors.

Curious to see how Marks and the NBA will handle this. Not to mention how his teamates ACTUALLY feel about this.

It's just an unnecessary mess.

[MrDollarBills]

Instead of the great win by the Nets last night, this is the narrative:

Read on Twitter

There is nothing that can be said here that paints Irving in a positive light. He has **** ed this team. He's not showing leadership, or anything. Leaders show up and do what they have to do. This guy just said **** it and some of you expect us to be cool with that?

[MrDollarBills]

Durant on Kyrie:

"“I won’t speak on Kyrie. I’ll let him do that for himself,” Durant said. “I’m sure you guys will see him soon whenever he comes back and we support him 100 percent."

I know its disappointing not having Kyrie on the floor. I love watching the dude play and am super disappointed too. but its important to see the bigger picture. Guys not pulling a Harden. he didnt bail on his team. he is dealing with personal stuff during a time of great distress in this country. His teammates clearly dont feel like he bailed on them and support him. The team is clearly ok with it at this point, verifying its an excused absence.

Everyone wants more info, but 1) Kyrie owes no one info on his personal life and 2) the team knows anything they say will be spun as negatively as possible.

sucks to wait, sucks not to know, but the anger in my opinion is very displaced. And I really dont get the "trade Kyrie for Harden" stuff as a response. Don't get me wrong, I still want Harden, but people who are like "kyrie is bailing on his team and is out partying" are clamoring for a trade for a guy who is ACTUALLY bailing on his team and ACTUALLY out partying

Christ, I am the last person to defend Harden but AT LEAST HE SHOWED UP FOR WORK. Come on man, this is ridiculous. Kyrie is **** ing us over and you are in denial.