Kyrie Irving could be great

Kyrie Irving made two sets of comments that reference Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. over the last couple of days. One comment was insightful, interesting, and a reflection that the gears in Kyrie’s head are always turning.

When asked about what it means to play on MLK Day, Kyrie said it’s an honor but insisted, rightly, that we shouldn’t reflect on the immense impacts and brilliant philosophy of King or other black heroes on just a holiday.

On Saturday, two days before MLK Day, Kyrie got to talking about how the media talks about him, as he often does. And he decided to invoke King’s name.

When I was out for those seven weeks and not saying anything and still people are still saying things about me, it’s inevitable. You know? They crucified Martin Luther King for speaking about peace and social integration. You know, you can go back to historical leaders and great people in society that do great things, and they’re still going to talk s**t about them. It is what it is.

Wow.

Kyrie didn’t pause there. What he says after seems like Kyrie’s core philosophy on all of this and is actually completely reasonable.

I know what I stand for. I’m a great family man. I have great values, core values. This basketball stuff is a game at the end of the day. It’s dramatized. It’s entertainment for people and fans. I’m a human being at the end of the day. I’m going to keep on reiterating that.

Needless to say, comparing media criticism about leadership and impact on the court to the critique from power and eventual assassination and whitewashing of King is nightmarishly self-centric.

Kyrie isn’t the only person to talk like this. You know this if you’ve watched like one minute of U.S. political coverage in the past, I don’t know, three years. People don’t like to be criticized, and some end up trumping up those critiques as personal attacks. They falsely equate those critiques with actual, physical harm done upon those who came before. Investigations become “witch hunts.” Media critiques become crucifixions. The fact the word “crucify” is in our modern lexicon is telling of this habit!

What’s sad about all this is that Kyrie is clearly sharp and he has a valuable philosophy and position in the NBA. He has always been unwilling to follow the narrative of what a player like him should be, whatever the cost. His comments about playing on MLK Day, which included a knock on the commercialization of the holiday (something the NBA is very much in the business of!) — you’re not getting those from too many other players, because not many other players (especially stars) think like Kyrie. There are lots of other smart NBA stars, of course.

But Kyrie’s worldview is just different. And different worldviews are valuable.

That different worldview also just happens to come packed with all of the other wild things Kyrie says, like suggesting fate has placed him as the Nets’ hero given that his last name is pronounced the same as Julius Erving (we must start calling him Dr. K now) and listing out which Nets are acceptable pieces of Brooklyn’s future.

Kyrie doesn’t have a filter, and that lets us hear the good and the bad. We could really use some less of the bad so everyone could really listen to the good. When Kyrie says things that make the audience laugh (at, not with, him) or cringe, they are less likely to hear the good or interesting with an open mind. For those who need to hear it, all the eye-rolling Kyrie material makes it easier to justify rolling their eyes at quotes like the one about playing on MLK Day.

By the way, after all of this, Kyrie didn’t play in the Nets’ MLK Day. He was a late scratch.

Tom Ziller publishes Good Morning It’s Basketball, an independent NBA newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter on Substack.