Someone who did the math revealed Saturday night something that Evan Roberts retweeted about his beloved Brooklyn Nets: the trio of Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Cameron Johnson have now played more minutes together than the original “Big 3” of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden.
Those minutes have all come over the last two months, and after revealing that fact, Evan asked “how are those Mavericks doing, Craig” – to which Craig Carton revealed a bombshell he initially dropped on his morning TV show.
“That is a team killer right there, and I made this point this morning and I stand by it: I think Kyrie is out of the league next year,” Craig said. “I know the Lakers because of LeBron, but how many other teams would be willing to commit the type of money he’s going to demand? Unless he’s willing to suck it up and play for a veteran-minimum type of deal, which he won’t, I think he’s going to be out of the league.”
Evan agreed with that on the money part, and likened it to another controversial athlete, Barry Bonds, and his exit from MLB, which may or may not have been a blackballing or a salary dispute, depending on who you asked.
“Barry Bonds was still productive after his last full season, and I had heard he was blackballed, but then I heard he wasn’t, and teams were making him offers but it wasn’t big money,” Evan said of Bonds. “But, there were teams that said I’d love to have you, but you’re going to make $3 million, and Bonds balked.”
Bonds made $15.8 million in his final season of 2007, and even at 42, he led the league in on-base percentage and walks and had more intentional passes (43) than homers (28).
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Kyrie is averaging 26.9 points, 5.5 assists, and 5.1 rebounds between Brooklyn and Dallas this year and is making almost $37 million – but even with his production and being just 31, is what he brings with him going to be worth a team committing big dollars that Brooklyn wouldn’t?
“Here’s where you could be right: teams could look at Kyrie and say, ‘we’re not giving you a max contract,’” Evan said. “The last time a team said that, it was my team, and what did Kyrie do? He cried, he shut it down, and he said trade me. He may have enough money and a big enough ego, and be firm in his beliefs that if no one offers him a max contract, let alone a big contract, that he won’t play on a one-year deal, even for $9 or $10 million.”
Craig then suggested maybe Kyrie could go to China like Stephon Marbury did, and when Evan shot back with “the champion of human rights is going to play in China?” to Craig, Carton had the perfect response:
“He had a Nike contract until last year, so you can’t play that game both ways,” Craig said.
Both men agreed that the Lakers seem to be the only real possibility, but it doesn’t make basketball sense in Evan’s mind…so it will be interesting to see just what does happen with Kyrie going forward.
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