It didn’t take long for the Brooklyn Nets to find a trade partner for Kyrie Irving. Irving requested a trade on Friday and was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks just two days later.
Brooklyn was able to get back a few pieces for Irving, including former Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, and multiple draft picks.
Keith McPherson, Robin Lundberg, and Hudson Flynn of the Audacy Original Podcast “Talkin’ Nets" gave their initial reaction to the trade that may have brought more relief than anything to Brooklyn.
“Fool me once, twice, fool me about seven different times. You had to make a business decision,” McPherson said. “The fans booed him on screen (Saturday) night at Barclays Center. They made a move and they got some value for one player who really, in my opinion, the regular-season highlights are fantastic, they’re fun to watch, but they really didn’t lose anything besides someone that brought a ton of distractions, a ton of negative headlines, and it officially ends the KD-Kyrie era so no more of the talk of them as a package deal.”
Even through Irving’s many off-court incidents over the past few years, Nets fans stood by him. Quitting on the team, however, was a different story.
“You mentioned Kyrie getting booed. I found that interesting just because through everything else he hadn’t been booed… He got booed for this because he committed a sports sin in this case. The sports sin of quitting on the team,” Lundberg said. “I think Nets fans – a lot of them – are feeling relief today…
“As someone who’s followed this very closely, I feel a sense of relief that that black cloud – I know the reference is a little old now but Wiley Coyote used to move and a little black cloud would follow him – that that black cloud is no longer over the Barclays Center.”
Irving has gone from Cleveland to Boston to Brooklyn and now to Dallas after the trade. It’ll be his third team in six seasons after spending the first six years of his career with the Cavaliers.
Flynn was among those who defended Irving during his time with the Nets. He’s done defending him now.
“What I’ll say is at the end of the day I feel a little – and emotions shouldn’t come into sports when it’s on the business side – but I feel a little betrayed by Kyrie Irving,” he said. “We spent years, Keith and I did, being the podcast and the account that was known to defend Kyrie when it came to his leaves of absence or some of his nonsense. We said ‘at the end of the day, he’s home. He’s a Jersey kid, he’s playing for the team that used to be in Jersey,’ and he has made a big point out of saying ‘this is home’ and this is where he foresees him finishing his career, and we almost banked on that a little bit.”
Now, after a rollercoaster of a season that started with Irving high-fiving and personally thanking fans at practice in the park, Kyrie completely turned his back on those same fans.
“It feels like a bit of a betrayal and at the end of the day, that’s a little emotional. Kevin Durant would make fun of me for being too emotional with these things,” Flynn continued. “But there’s some sort of an agreement – like a pact – that’s made between players and fans, especially players who come here and say that they want to be here, and to quit on the team – and I am comfortable using that word – feels disappointing.”
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