Kyrie Irving gave his opponent credit and talked about making roster moves in the offseason? Interesting. Seems very out of character.
"When I say I'm here with Kev (Durant), I think that really entails us managing this franchise together alongside (Nets owner) Joe (Tsai) and (general manager) Sean (Marks) and just our group of family members that we have in our locker room and our organization," Brooklyn's point guard said when asked about his future with the Nets on Monday. "It's not just about me and Kev, I don't want to make it just about that. We're cornerstones here. We have Ben (Simmons), we have a few other guys that are under contract. We've just got to make some moves this offseason, really talk about it, really be intentional about what we're building."
That was just a taste of what Irving had to say after he and his Nets teammates got beat handily by the Celtics, which gave Boston fans the last laugh. Before moving on from the latest chapter of Boston vs. Kyrie, Kendrick Perkins made sure to get after Brooklyn's point guard one more time during NBC Sports Boston's postgame show on Monday.
"He said a whole lot of nothing," Perkins said. "Talking about the direction that they're going in and things to that nature. No. You and Kevin Durant wanted to come together to the Brooklyn Nets to do one thing, and one thing only, and that was to come in and compete for a championship. Not get swept. Not through people under the bus. Not say we're looking forward to the offseason, making some adjustments.
But that's nothing new. Eddie House going after Irving, however, is not something we see every day.
"He talked in so many circles, I started to get dizzy. I'm thinking to myself, 'Man, hold up,'" House said. "He's going here, he's going there and then he's trying to downplay stuff. So that's what I don't like. Don't try to downplay it. Y'all came here, y'all got whooped. (The Celtics) had a game plan, y'all couldn't figure it out. They smacked y'all. (The Celtics) smacked y'all.
"Don't try to start, 'Oh the team ain't been together.' Well, whose fault was that? You (were) part of that. You (were) the reason — and I'm not here to judge no man on what decision he wants to make for his life. But at the same time, you affected your team not being together. Then you (talk about) 'Oh, the heavy lifting.' What heavy lifting (did you do)? You played 29 games, brother. I mean, come on. Who created all that extra heavy lifting? You, Kyrie Irving.
"So at the end of the day, don't get on here and start trying to talk with the slouch and get to talking sad and then talking about upper management. … Don't talk about upper management and all this and that. Because whatever y'all (are) doing, y'all need to stop and let the people upstairs handle (their) business, and y'all need to handle the business on the court. Because y'all just got molly whopped.
