Kyrie Irving Responds To Suggestions He Swiped At LeBron: ‘Don’t Listen To The False Narratives’

won’t really have a head coachKyrie Irving made headlines for a pair of things he said on Kevin Durant’s new podcast, The ETCs. Irving turned heads by suggesting that the Brooklyn Nets won’t really have a head coach, although his argument did make sense, as he mentioned that the team has a number of voices around first-time coach Steve Nash who can provide input and help the team make informed decisions.

The other raised a few more eyebrows. Irving, in praising Durant’s ability to score, said, “One thing I’ve always been comfortable with is, I felt like I was the best option on every team I’ve played for down the stretch. This is the first time in my career where I can look down and be like, that motherf*cker can make that shot too and he’ll probably do it a lot easier.”

Now, this led to a whole lot of eyebrows being raised, as Irving, you know, once played on the same basketball team as LeBron James. But Irving pretty obviously meant this as praise of Durant more than a knock on James — who, famously, stayed out of the way as Irving hit the shot that won the Cleveland Cavaliers a championship in 2016 — and after the comments made the rounds on the internet, Irving took to Instagram and tried to cool things down.

“Come on, y’all, don’t listen to the false narratives,” Irving said. “Let people live their lives. It’s just a game. Talk about the art, talk about the sport, you talk openly, you talk freely. But, because we live in a clickbait society, it becomes something bigger. You don’t have to defend it, that’s just what media is. It’s entertainment. I’m not gonna let it put me against anybody anymore at any point, because that’s not what it is about.”

Again, while there’s certainly a way to read Irving’s comments to Durant as a knock on James, it’s probably fair to take him at his word here. The two are close, and again, in the biggest moment of their respective careers, the ball was in Irving’s hands and he delivered. And besides, Durant very well might be the best 1-on-1 player to ever live.