Another day, another fascinating Kyrie Irving nugget to unpack. Thanks to trend-setters like eccentric Wizards guard Russell Westbrook, NBA players have made the short, concrete-walled journey to the locker room into a fashion runway of sorts, one-upping each other with increasingly bizarre outfits. Irving, who is nursing a lower back injury (hence his absence against the Suns), arrived to the arena Tuesday night with an unusual accessory.
Despite what Twitter commenters would have you believe, it’s not a wizard’s staff (the timeline was predictably flooded with Gandalf and Rafiki memes) or a shepherd’s crook Irving is holding, but rather a walking stick to honor his Native American heritage. It’s not the first time Kyrie has alluded to his Sioux ancestry. The Brooklyn star previously performed a cleansing ritual (burning sage) before his return to Boston’s TD Garden earlier this season.
It all adds to the mystique of the outspoken Irving, a known pot-stirrer and one of the most polarizing figures in the NBA. Someday, we’ll run out of layers to peel back in our endless quest to solve the riddle that is Kyrie Irving, but not any time soon.
Even without the help of Irving and Kevin Durant (who is slated to miss the next handful of games with a strained hamstring), the Nets, aided by a Herculean performance from newcomer James Harden (38 points on efficient 14-of-22 shooting), were able to dispatch Phoenix Tuesday night, erasing a 21-point halftime deficit en route to a 128-124 victory. After weathering some initial growing pains, the revamped Nets appear to be hitting their stride, winning four straight while closing within a game of Philadelphia for first place in the Eastern Conference.
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