Brooklyn Nets: The Kyrie Irving criticism has begun early
The Brooklyn Nets are entering their Friday night matchup with the New York Knicks with criticism to their start point guard
The one-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves wasn’t the ideal way to start the season for Brooklyn Nets fans. The defeat was compounded by the instant evaluation of newly acquired All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving.
The New Jersey native started his Nets career with a bang by scoring 50 points and seemingly taking on multiple double teams in the process. The final shot came up short but it wasn’t the top story from the loss it was his apparent lack of interest to find teammates. A criticism that has hovered over Irving throughout his tenure with the Boston Celtics.
Irving was honoring his late grandfather who passed away a year ago that night so it explained the emotion in his performance. The emotional aspect of Irving’s game has made an impression on former teammates as New York Knicks forward Marcus Morris explained to the NY Post about his time in Boston with Irving.
"“He just forgot how big of a leader he was,’’ Morris said. “I think he sometimes forgot that. As a leader, outside stuff can affect our team. And I think that did. Not like outside distractions but like family stuff he had going on. That’s just how it goes, There’s five people on the court. At the end of the day, it’s not just one guy.”"
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"“A good leader, every day you separate basketball and you separate the off-court things,’’ Morris said. “Like I said, man, he’s human, so that time was a learning experience. And we had a lot of young guys, so it was tough on him."
The Knicks and Nets rivalry has been dormant for the past few seasons but will be electric after the eventful offseason of both teams. Irving and Kevin Durant have been instrumental in pushing the rivalry and the notion that Brooklyn is the real team in New York City.
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As of right now, optic wise Brooklyn is the elite franchise because of its excellent front office and young talent.