Basketball superstar Kyrie Irving has been labelled “idiotic” and someone who “cannot be trusted” after his bombshell trade request from the Brooklyn Nets.
Irving lobbed a grenade ahead of Thursday’s NBA trade deadline with reports the Los Angeles Lakers could be the best fit for the 30-year-old.
But NBA expert Kendrick Perkins has slammed the guard for his disloyalty.
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“This is Kyrie Irving, a guy that you cannot trust,” Perkins said on Talking NBA.
“Didn’t Kyrie Irving say Kevin Durant is his best friend, right? So where’s the loyalty?
“If that’s your best friend, I don’t want that. Give me an enemy for the simple fact when you look at how Kevin Durant has been riding for Kyrie Irving since they arrived in Brooklyn, standing behind him, doing whatever his beliefs were, whatever he was doing, riding with him over James Harden; Kyrie Irving is the reason James Harden left!
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“Now we get to this point with his contract right, now all of a sudden the Brooklyn Nets didn’t match or agree to what Kyrie wanted them to agree upon.
“Two years ago, didn’t the Brooklyn Nets try to give him, Kevin Durant and James Harden a contract extension? Didn’t Kyrie Irving turn it down?
“Now we get here, you have a stretch over a two-week period where you’ve been playing outstanding basketball and now all of a sudden that same contract they had for you, that you turned down, you want them to put that right back in front of your face again?
“Don’t come give me all this about ‘oh, they can trade him to the Lakers for Russell Westbrook’. First of all, the Brooklyn Nets don’t have to do a damn thing. They need to do what’s best for the Brooklyn Nets.”
Commentator Stephen A Smith described Irving’s shock trade request as “idiotic” given he provides a distraction off the court.
“Here’s a guy in Kyrie Irving that for the last three years has gotten most of his money but missed more than 50 per cent of his games, enters the last year after this off season. Obviously the situation he got himself into earlier this year was unfortunate but he resurrected himself from that, was playing fantastic basketball… reminding everybody what an absolute flat-out superstar basketball player he is.
“No one questioned that – all we ever questioned was can the man go the rest of the season without being any sort of distraction if he’s going to have a chance to get his money? And low and behold he pulls this.
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“And why? Because the Brooklyn Nets had the unmitigated gall to say ‘play the season, (and) we’ll see because we haven’t had you for a full season without any drama’, and here he is again.
“For a guy that’s looking for a long-term deal from another team, there is no question about what you’re getting when Kyrie Irving is on a basketball court.
“The only question regarding him is his commitment to not being a distraction.
“The fact he’s made headlines with this, all it did was serve to remind everybody out there he’s spectacular, we’d love to have him in our uniform so long as we don’t have to make a long-term investment in him because he cannot be trusted.
“He just reminded the basketball world of that.”
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NBA journalist Chris Haynes had reported Irving’s camp decided to walk away from his hometown team after the Nets presented an offer tied to the team winning a championship.
According to Haynes, Irving’s camp was offended that his contractual future would depend on such stipulations, adding that the issue was not about money.
ESPN reports Irving had been seeking a four-year, $198.5 million maximum extension, but if Irving was traded, he would be eligible to sign a two-year $78.6 million extension with his new team until June 30.
