Kyrie Irving isn't going to play for the Brooklyn Nets if the NBA season does resume in Florida as planned next month, but he's still found a way to be a part of the story.
Irving reportedly has been a "driving force" in raising concerns over the league's bubble plan. The league is bringing back 22 teams, including the Nets, to Walt Disney World in July to play eight more regular season (seeding) games in addition to a normal four-round playoffs.
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One of Irving's reported concerns about the league's return, one that is shared by other players including Los Angeles Lakers guard Avery Bradley, is that playing basketball again would take attention away from the national conversation on systemic racism and police brutality. Many players from the NBA -- including Celtics guards Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart -- and other sports have participated in peaceful protests and led the call for change over the last few weeks following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis last month.
"I don’t support going into Orlando," Irving recently told players on a call, per The Athletic's Shams Charania. "I’m not with the systematic racism and the bulls---. … Something smells a little fishy. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are targeted as black men every day we wake up."
Former Boston Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, who played with Irving for a brief time on the Cleveland Cavaliers, has not been shy about responding to his former teammate. He joined the latest episode of NBC Sports Boston's "Celtics at Home" and discussed the issue further.
"I don't have a problem with anyone who's trying to make a stand for civil rights and change in America. But it's not what you do, it's how you do it," Perkins said. "It's been months of conversation. Kyrie Irving is a vice president in the players association. So he's been on conference calls. He's been in the mix. He's had more than enough time to voice his opinion, whether or not he thinks we should resume playing basketball. In these conversations with some of our leaders, like (NBPA) president Chris Paul and a lot of other powerful guys in the league -- LeBron James, Anthony Davis, the list goes on -- they all were on a phone conversation several times and everyone agreed that basketball needed to come back. They wanted basketball back, including Kyrie.
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"Here's my thing. During that time, where were you at then? That was the time to speak up. Because now what happened is that last week Kyrie reached out to the players association and asked them, hey, can inactive players travel? I want to be with my team and be part of the team. He was asking to go to Orlando. Now all of a sudden, they tell him no, inactive players can't go. Now all of a sudden you change your mind. My problem with it -- is it coming from a genuine place? I'm not questioning where his heart is, but, to me, it's just stirring the pot, and it's dividing the players association, and that's not a good thing right now."
Check out the full conversation with Perkins, Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix and NBC Sports Boston's Abby Chin on the latest episode of "Celtics at Home", which can be watched in its entirety in the video below. Be sure to also check out previous episodes on the NBC Sports Boston YouTube page.