Kyrie Irving escaped potential injury in just his second game of the season, but he made sure the refs knew that he didn’t care for the dive from Portland’s Nassir Little that caused him to tweak his ankle.
“It’s totally unnecessary,” Irving said after the Nets’ 114-108 loss. “I get Nassir wanting to go for the ball, but it’s just a bad play. But it’s all good.”
Midway through the fourth quarter with the Nets down five, Irving chased a loose ball into the backcourt, while Little stormed in from behind and dove for the loose ball, sliding head first and causing Irving to roll his left ankle while he fell to the floor after Little knocked the ball out of bounds.
Irving was able to finish the game and finish with 22 points in 40 minutes of action, but he didn’t like the slide from Little.
“I tried to get out of the way, but I just felt like it was unnecessary for him to dive from that far away from the ball,” Irving said. “I was just trying to get out of the way. I asked the refs, ‘you just have to protect our players out there.’”
Irving hurt his ankle in the playoffs last season and was never able to return, and escaped another potential ankle injury on Monday. He said he will be fine for Brooklyn’s big road matchup with the Bulls on Wednesday night, but hopes to not see a play like the one from Nassir again.
“I was just like ‘Man, that’s not a good play for basketball,’” Irving said of his conversation with the officials. “I could have broken my ankle or done something worse. There’s just no place in our game for it. I get the intent from Nassir…but it could have been avoided.”
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