The reactions have been brutal ever since Brooklyn Nets crashed out of the playoffs in a humiliating manner. They were swept 4-0 by the Boston Celtics.
But now Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving has hit back at the media, branding the Nets “puppet masters” in a long social media rant.
Irving’s teammate Kevin Durant was strongly criticized by former NBA star Charles Barkley in the aftermath of the playoffs humiliation while Australian Ben Simmons has also been a key target of severe scrutiny.
It prompted the Nets superstar to come out in defense of his colleagues, unleashing rants at the media via his Twitter platform.
He wrote, “When I see my name or my brothers/sisters’ names getting spun through the media, I refer to all my research about who they are.”
Irving, who wasn’t listed in the same game parlay guide, posted on the media, “Their job is to CONTROL PUBLIC PERCEPTION, all while profiting off discussing, discrediting, and disrespecting people’s lives for entertainment.”
“I send shots at the puppet masters, not the puppets. All puppets do is run around society, trying to gain popularity and state opinions. What a life!”
“My name is worth billions to these media corporations. My brothers and sisters who deal with this know exactly what I mean. When you become free mentally and spiritually, there is not much this twisted/Racist society can surprise you with. My ancestors left behind all of the wisdom and truth for their agenda to be exposed. When you know exactly who they are, they can’t hide from their filth.”
“A lot (sic) of these media corporations make their money by degrading BLACK/African/Indigenous community heroes. They thrive off of it and then sell it back to us by having a hand-selected person or group of people spark controversy about them for the world to see.”
“Just watch all of the people who wake up every day and report about people’s lives on TV and social media, and then profit off of them. Then they justify their jobs by saying they get paid to say how they feel. Lol, it’s like these people live in a fantasy.”
The rant drew an instant response from ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith, who was strong in his scrutiny of the Brooklyn Nets after their series loss to the Celtics.
However, if Smith’s remarks on Irving’s Twitter rant are anything to be taken seriously, he is just getting started and is not taking the Nets superstar’s advice to heart.
Smith said on ‘First Take’, “I’m going to let it marinate for the next 24 hours.”
“If ever the cuffs came off on First Take, it’s coming off tomorrow. I don’t even want to sleep before I comment on this stuff that he just said. I cannot wait. I cannot wait and I told the producers we ain’t touching on this today, I’m going to save it for tomorrow when I got more time.”
Smith also said: “You can try to paint this issue, Kyrie, like anything you want to,” Smith said. “What it comes down to is you don’t want to show up to work. You want to do what you want to do when you want to do it, how you want to do it, while you got your hand out for someone else’s money.”
“And then when you get called on it, we’re the peons. We’re the ones who are puppets. So before you excoriated us. Now you’re pitying us. Because you want to highlight the puppet masters to who you are worth billions. You’re not worth billions, bro. Millions, yes. Billions, no. That’s delusional. You gave that up years ago.”
