I have been fascinated by Kyrie Irving’s self destruction this week. Kyrie, a basketball player that only occasionally plays basketball, gets paid an insane amount of money in the hopes his undisputed skill on the court can translate into a championship for his employer. The downside to Kyrie is that he brings a huge amount of baggage to the organization. Kyrie sees himself as some sort of crusading intellectual though his actual causes are rather murky. He plays the part of someone extraordinarily engaged in scholarly matters and social justice. He tends not to be able to back that up as he often says shockingly stupid things and is generally obtuse. Kyrie seems to think people see him as a social activist when I think it is more accurate to say people see him as a freakishly good offensive basketball player who always creates pointless controversy. As a casual Kyrie observer, I tend just to notice what Irving is up to when something blows up around him. There are always two sets of narratives around these incidents with Kyrie.
The first is the logical one. That goes like this. Kyrie says or does something inflammatory. He’s amped it up from his "the earth is flat" days to veering into conspiracy theory waters with his refusing to get a covid vaccine and now this spotlight he is placing on an antisemitic documentary. The sports media gets all revved up and reports the crap out of it. Kyrie then usually doubles down on whatever he said/did that got him into trouble. The sports media goes even crazier, especially if it's midweek with no NFL stories breaking. Ultimately either his team or the league itself gets Kyrie to issue some half assed position change so they can settle their sponsors and fans down. For example, Nike isn't eager to be seen as associated with someone that promotes and then refuses to denounce an anti semitic viewpoint. This I see as being completely understandable on Nike's part. If they don't sell you a Kyrie shoe, they'll just sell you another one.
The other less popular but still living narrative is that Kyrie is a victim of the media and of cancel culture. Just because Kyrie says something that is unpopular, he is then unfairly scapegoated when he is just speaking his mind. Kyrie is a man that is growing through self education and is seeking to move the conversation past basketball and point out the various injustices brought on by those in power to voiceless victims. As Kyrie didn't specifically say anything antisemitic, therefore the media has snowballed him into being an antisemite. Thus, Kyrie is actually a victim in these cases when he is just hoping to spark dialogue that will create growth.
This narrative is obviously full of flaws. Kyrie Irving has 17.5 million Instagram followers. He gave a platform to the documentary "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America" which was shot for $8000 by an amateur filmmaker. The "documentary" contains a number of conspiracy theories and complete falsehoods which the ADL noted as "global Jewish conspiracy to oppress and defraud Black people, allegations that Jews are in part responsible for the transatlantic slave trade and the claim that Jews falsified the history of the Holocaust in order to “conceal their nature and protect their status and power.” An $8000 film couldn't pay for that kind of advertising. That would be a $250,000 ad buy WITHOUT the implied celebrity endorsement. Kyrie takes the position that he didn't make the documentary, so he's not responsible. That's like if Salma Hayek posted a picture of a Klan rally where they were burning a cross and said "Hey, I didn't hold the rally. Don't get on my ass.".
The second big flaw in the logic is that Kyrie is not allowed to speak freely. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's because he could speak so freely that he got in this hot water. You can say whatever you want. You just have to be able to answer for it when you do. The media didn't create this issue. He put the post out. He said to 17 million people, "Can I have your attention? Check out this film. I am enthusiastic enough about this that I posted it." If you don't want to talk about your fringe beliefs, don't bring them to everyone's attention with a social media post. And then when are asked if you are anti semitic, the correct answer is "No." if you're not. If you are, now's the time to discuss how the Holocaust is falsified. I'll tell you this. That's a press conference I'm not going to miss.
When everyone goes crazy when Kyrie refuses to say he's not antisemitic, what does he do? Doubles down. A guy playing in one of the largest Jewish communities on the planet won't say "I thought the documentary raised some interesting points on the origins of black culture, but I don't agree with the anti semitism. It was a mistake for me to post that on social media as it doesn't reflect on my feelings regarding the Jewish people and their history. I'm sorry to put the team and the league in this position.". Nope. Instead he gives a press conference where he didn't follow through on his agreement with the team/league and then later had his agent put out a written apology that clearly wasn't written by him. Nike pulled their sponsorship with $17M a year, the team indefinitely suspended him without pay, and he is going to be a free agent next season. Who wants to sign a player that refuses to denounce hate speech and hold that press conference? Is Tehran getting an NBA franchise? It's an amazing self-destructive turn of events that I cannot look away from.
Where Kyrie just lost millions, I'm making money. Why? Because I see things for the way they are in the NFL. One of my beliefs, and that of Vegas local Ken "Krusty" Miller is that Raiders head coach Josh McDaniel is a loser that brings in his losing culture to create losses. The Raiders made the playoffs in 2021, signed a #1 receiver in Adams, and brought in McDaniel to coach. Now they're 2-5. I'm not saying things are going poorly for the Raiders, but I'm taking Jacksonville to beat them today with less than a field goal on the spread. It's not easy to take your money, put it in a little pile and say "Yes, I'd like to hand this money to you so you can place it on Trevor Lawrence.". That's not an easy thing to say, but I'm saying it. Jacksonville +2.5
The Colts are in the sad sack "we can't find a quarterback, so we will try anything" spot the Broncos have been in for a decade. Phillip Rivers to Matt Ryan to Sam Ehlinger. Ouch. There's this myth that Ehlinger is a mobile quarterback. He is compared to Matt Ryan I suppose, but not Fields/Lamar. Those guys can enter decathalons. Ehlinger will be a monster in "office olympics" when is football career ends in 2025. The Colts go to New England today. The Hoodie is undefeated at home versus rookie quarterbacks. You see how Wilson looked last week? Belichick is cooking up something Sam Ehlinger has never seen before. I mean, the Colts can't score anyway. How are they going to do in this scenario? New England -4.5
The Bucs and Rams both look injured, old, and ordinary. The Bucs still look like they are trying. The Rams look like they quit last week, and Stafford looks broken. I'll take Brady at home in a game they have to win to remain relevant in the 2022 season. You think that guy wants to get divorced AND have his career go down the shitter at the same time? I think the Bucs have enough left in the tank. The Rams got nuthin'. Tampa -3
Season record: 14-10
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