Kyrie Irving vs. the Celtics crowd was a spectacle-within-a-spectacle last night, with more drama sure to follow in the coming days. Before going any further - see it for yourself here. And here. Kyrie scored 39 points last night in a dramatic loss, using his usual grace and skill to get around the league’s best defense. But as usual, basketball is second in the weird world of Kyrie Irving vs. the Crowd.
On paper, you would think an NBA All-Star with one of the most iconic shots in the sport’s history would be talked about like a Steph Curry, a LeBron, Durant, etc. But Kyrie is not like the other birds in the birdhouse. To simplify into a single phrase, his mind is completely 100% bonafide FREEEEEEEE. But more than one phrase is needed to describe this most complex of individuals.
Before going any further, check out his Instagram to see how he likes to express himself. And play this compilation of his worldview in the background while reading the rest of this. Love him or hate him, he is who he is 100% of the time.
Kyrie spends his whole life trying to go against the crowd. I’ve always admired him a bit for how determined he is to fight the system. This is where he deserves credit (if you’re big on the liberal grind and reading this please please don’t go, I promise it’ll be worth it) - he actually sees the system for what it is. Think about all the shit he’s seen in his life as a superstar who played with LeBron James, won an NBA Finals, and went to Duke (for 9 games, but still). He has had a behind the scenes view, and sees how the money game is played. How the athletes make millions while the owners make billions. How your basketball contract is but one possible income stream - the real money is in utilizing your position to attract as much interest from the system as possible and rake in the $$$. I hope you’re still watching that compilation video at this point.
Where he lacks, to be blunt, is the ability to filter out the bullshit. And it gets him into trouble a lot, because he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. He’s clearly very sharp, but doesn’t have that extra filter, and therefore…believes the Earth is flat. And would not take the COVID vaccine even though it meant he couldn’t play in any home games at the time. I think that former is quite a bit more egregious than the latter, but the latter is obviously the one which truly turned Kyrie into the cartoon villain he has become today. What do I mean by cartoon? Watch this please.
One important item which seems to have been forgotten - he also harbors the anti-Jew viewpoint which it was discovered is quite prevalent amongst the African-American athlete community in today’s society (the legacy of Louis Farrakhan). I believe with 100% of my soul that, in this way of thinking, “Jew” is a stand-in for “Finance” - if there was an international cabal of Jews that controlled the world, where the F is my invite?? But Kyrie does seem to think that Jewish people themselves are responsible for many of the system’s crimes, which is unfortunate. But since everyone in the world seemed to forget this scandal (I suspect the anti-Jew shit didn’t have as big of a clickthrough rate than COVID vaccines), we won’t focus on this subject any longer.
Because he is “anti-vax,” Kyrie is the perfect litmus test for 2022 USA. COVID was bad. Vaccine is good. Kyrie does not like good vaccine. Kyrie is the problem. We hate Kyrie now. Let’s all talk about how much we hate Kyrie every day and give our attention to the systems making money off of us.
Nationally, Kyrie is a supervillain in the mainstream media. A perfect punching bag for a country with a standard of living previously unseen in history…at least for the people who hate Kyrie. Look at the media going round the country trying to get those sweet sweet soundbites on how awful Kyrie is.
So that’s the national story. But on a local level, Kyrie was kind of a schmuck to the Celtics when he was playing there. The fans never really got on with his personality, which is not surprising if you know anything about how Bostonians are with their sports. Kyrie doesn’t bleed for his city - he thinks you’re a loser for caring enough about hoop to bleed for yours.
He also miiiight have told them when he really didn’t have to that he was definitely going to come back and that he loved them only to then leave less than a year after saying all those things. He might have….Kyrie Irving SHOCKING LIE To Celtics Crowd Then Signs With Nets To Join Kevin Durant! - YouTube. What a dramatic title. Not too far off though.
All this culminated last night. The Boston crowd was absolutely relentless. The obscenities were constant, often coming from people who probably spend all day being cordial to their office mates or Zoom chat buddies. The entire stadium of 19,000+ people chatting “FUCK YOU, KYRIE.” Constant verbal abuse when he was within earshot. From the same Boston fans who once took me in at the bar before a playoff game when my buddies were an hour late and I had 5 shots on my table. They love to love. But they love to hate a lot more. See Simmons, Ben.
Also quick note, that link to the F You Kyrie chant was from a previous game. Not even last night. Jeez.
Sports fans are used to these elite athletes simply ignoring the shit talking from the fans and pretending it’s not happening. The fourth wall is a generally accepted principle that all the athletes follow. But the Nets’ superstar (and his teammate, world’s greatest Kevin Durant) seems to relish any opportunity he gets to break it open. So he flipped them off. Told them to suck his dick. Got into it with them, and created a feedback loop which pushed the crowd further and further. The more they did it, the more he egged them on. And played a masterful game. Which Boston won at the buzzer (almost definitely making the fans feel like they were responsible - we boo’d Kyrie and look what happened! Can’t wait to do it again in two days!).
Americans have nothing to do most of the time. We work, we come home, we flip on the TV or go do a thing. We go to sleep. We work. The animal energy builds up. Sports is an outlet for that animal energy. Especially being part of a crowd chanting swears at one man. All I see in some of these clips of Kyrie and other NBA stars (Simmons, Trae Young, Kevin Durant on his return to OKC, LeBron on his return to Cleveland) is people finally having something to rally behind. And it’s sad.
So, who holds the great trial of whether Kyrie was in the wrong or not during this fiasco? Who weighs the evidence and informs the people that one man getting yelled at by thousands of angry people has the right to express himself?
Well the media of course. The thought control.
Instead of focusing on that, or even on the basketball itself (in what’s sure to be an epic series between two insanely good teams), Kyrie’s unruly behavior was the focus of EVERY. SINGLE. SPORTS. SHOW. today. All the talking heads give their perspective about Kyrie, calling him a phony or emotionally soft for caving in. Some defended him and admired him. Everyone has an opinion. Creating content off of this incident and spamming it all over the place so they can place advertisements in front of it. Try to watch this - what happens before you can view the perspective on Kyrie?
This is exactly why Kyrie does what he does. Why he harbors anti-system world views, even ones which jeopardize public health or go against basic science. In his mind, this inhumane system does not deserve his respect. The more he can rebel and showcase the true nature of the beast, the more he’ll do it. And since nobody is in control of the media except for click whores who love the controversy, they’ll just keep reporting it again and again. It’s the top of every sports website and they’ll run it back after Wednesday’s Game 2. And he’s going to play the villain the whole time, showcasing his truly outrageous skill set all the while.
Maybe the more they do so, the more people will see how pathetic it is to spend your time reading perspectives about how awful Kyrie Irving is. I think I’m on the Nets bandwagon - the further they go the more of this amazing litmus test we will see.
Until Next Time,
Mr. Monopoly