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Kyrie Irving’s Upside Down World
The Brooklyn superstar lashes out against his own Nike shoe, yet continues to profit off the things he hates
Kyrie Irving has become one of the most polarizing figures in recent — if not all-time — NBA lore. Although the Australian-born, former №1 draft pick out of Duke University has always been known for his deadly handles on the hardwood (search any highlight clip with his name on YouTube), in recent years he has been blasted for his lack of handling social topics with as much smoothness and grace.
There’s that ever-infamous time when he claimed the world was flat, then later apologized (a theory that was first dispelled by Eratosthenes in 240 BC when he somehow estimated the earth’s circumference). Then there’s the time Kyrie suggested that NBA media members are a bunch of worthless “pawns” after refusing to comply with his interviewing responsibilities—something that he quoted Malcolm X while doing. Then there’s the time he held a Zoom conference with over 80 NBA players to lead a charge against the NBA Bubble’s restart in 2020 — noble, but contrary to his role as a professional basketball player. And there’s the time he didn’t show up for a stretch of games during the regular season — apparently without communicating properly to his organization — until it later turned out he needed a…
