Kyrie Irving clearly had some things to get off his chest.
After the Mavericks’ 113-106 loss to the Pelicans on Wednesday, the Dallas guard went off on fans and the media in a Twitch rant that referenced his breakups with the Cavaliers, Celtics and Nets.
Irving, who was traded from the Nets to the Mavericks last month, called out those that believe they know the real him after watching him play basketball.
“You see me for three hours and you think you know who I am. You see a few posts: ‘Oh Ky is woke, Ky got it, oh, Ky is, oh my goodness. He just doesn’t fit into the mold of all the people. He’s different, he’s crazy, he’s arrogant, he’s this, he’s that.’
“All from seeing me for three hours. You get all that.
“‘What’s Ky gonna do this summer? Does Ky like Dallas? What happened in Brooklyn? What happened in Boston? What happened in Cleveland? Why did you leave LeBron [James]? Why did you leave Jayson [Tatum]? Why did you leave KD [Kevin Durant]? Why did you leave all these people?’
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“For three hours — get to ask all these legitimate questions as if 21 hours every day wasn’t happening after that.
“Me, you think that I’m the cancer in the locker room as if basketball is an individual sport that one person is supposed to take blame for. It’s 15 guys on the team, and I’m the one cancer in the room. That’s what it’s portrayed as. That’s what you guys get. That’s what they have fun doing. That’s why these older, bitter gentlemen and women keep my name in their mouths every day.”
Irving also went off on sports betting and the effect its having on fans.
“Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity away and the fun away from the game at times,” Irving said. “I’m gonna just be honest with y’all. Work is work, but the support around it can be distracting.
“There’s a difference between being a diehard fan and supporting your team and loving your team versus somebody that’s betting on a parlay or somebody that wants to hit.”
For Irving, the betting has had a direct impact on his life.
“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want anybody wasting their money on me,” he said. “But God dang, like this whole community of gamblers that’s coming to the game of basketball. Y’all tell me what y’all think. If you want to gamble, why don’t you gamble on something that makes sense to you?
“I’m just saying you gambling, you going to win or lose. But that doesn’t mean slide into people’s DMs or wishing bad on them or doing the extra s–t that goes on, man. It blows my mind sometimes. You feel me?”
Irving concluded his rant by questioning how he is free if his indigenous people are not in Australia, among others.
The tirade came after Irving’s drama-filled performance on the court, where he finished with 27 points, six rebounds and four assists in the loss and appeared to get into it with a fan during the game.
“There’s nothing like fans trying to tell me how to play basketball,” Irving said while looking toward crowd at Smoothie King Center.
That’s when the fan began shouting about Irving posting on Amazon, a reference to his previous social media posts that promoted an anti-semitic film and book during his time in Brooklyn, which led to a suspension by the Nets.