"Certified team killer": Barstool Sports' fame Dave Portnoy blasts Kyrie Irving after planned one-on-one fails to materialize
Kyrie Irving wanted out of the shadows of LeBron James and become the leader of his own team. Since forcing his way out of Cleveland, Irving hasn’t had much success. He had two contentious seasons with the Boston Celtics and an even more controversial stay with the Brooklyn Nets. Despite all of that, the Dallas Mavericks still traded for him in February. With Luka Doncic and Irving in the lineup, the Mavs went from fourth in the Western Conference to eventually missing even the play-in tournament.
Although Dallas' failure wasn’t solely on Irving’s shoulders, some analysts and fans called out the point guard for another disappointing season. The Mavericks were 8-12 with Irving on the floor and 5-12 when “Uncle Drew” and Doncic played together.
When asked about Kyrie Irving, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy had this to say about the mercurial point guard on the “Flagrant” podcast:
(1:33:50 mark)
“I think he’s a team killer. Why would the Mavs trade for him? He’s a certified team killer! And he killed them. Guess what, Kyrie [Irving] tweeted at me, ‘Hey, f**king big mouth, why don’t you play me one-on-one?’ So, I was like, ‘Alright, motherf**ker, let’s play one-on-one.
“He and I text each other now, the craziest text trying to set up this one-on-one where he’s gonna meet my family [and] I’m gonna meet his family and we’re gonna try to solve world peace together but it hasn’t happened. Playing ball one-on-one and a sit down after. F**k, no!”
Dave Portnoy is a huge Boston Celtics fan. And like most fans of the Green Machine, he is not particularly fond of Irving. Portnoy recalled Irving’s stomping of the leprechaun in the TD Garden as one of the biggest reasons Cs fans have no love for the eight-time All-Star.
According to Portnoy, he and “Uncle Drew” have been trying to set up the one-on-one match since August. The businessman is willing to take his lumps against one of the NBA’s best players but will not go through a sit-down with him.
David Portnoy is Jewish and he didn’t like the way Kyrie Irving dealt with the backlash of his anti-Semitic posts.
Kyrie Irving wished it had been the Dallas Mavericks that drafted him in 2011
The Cleveland Cavaliers had a 19-63 record the following season after LeBron James infamously announced “The Decision” to take his talents to South Beach. They earned the No. 1 pick in 2011, which they used to draft Kyrie Irving.
The Dallas Mavericks were the 2011 NBA champs after pulling off a stunning upset against the heavily favored Miami Heat. Ironically enough, Miami had James in the lineup along with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Dallas had no way of picking 1st after their success. The Mavs grabbed Jordan Hamilton with the 26th pick but later traded him to the Denver Nuggets.
Irving had this to say about his draft night (via James Burnes):
"I wish I would've got drafted by Dallas initially. Obviously, they weren't in position in 2011, but just feeling how this organization wraps their arms around the guys."
Dave Portnoy and basketball fans will be interested to see how long the feeling lasts between Kyrie Irving and Mavs fans. Cleveland, Boston and Brooklyn started the same way but didn’t last for long.