"I think he may be nuts": Dave Portnoy gets bizarre late-night texts from Kyrie Irving filled with lengthy musings about solving world problems
Kyrie Irving and Dave Portnoy aren’t on good terms but they are working on that relationship. The two have publicly feuded over the past years. Irving’s failure to return to the Boston Celtics after vowing to re-sign for Portnoy’s favorite team may have been the last straw. Recently, the two traded shots again when “Uncle Drew’s” free agency was in full swing.
Irving and Portnoy have been trying to set up a one-on-one where they play basketball and then have a talk. According to the Barstool Sports founder, they’ve been looking to get it done in August but have not met.
Here’s what Dave Portnoy had to say in the “Flagrant” podcast about his conversations with the Dallas Mavericks point guard:
(1:35:12 mark)
“He said, ‘We’ll do it [one-on-one] in your hometown, I’ll come, meet your parents [and] you’ll meet mine. ‘Cause I think there’s a lot of s**t.’ I can’t get a read on him. I think he may be nuts.
"He sends paragraphs to me like weird hours. You wouldn’t be even able to make sense [of his texts]. He’s basically like, ‘I want peace, no hate, let’s figure it out.’”
Dave Portnoy hasn’t been the only one who has been unimpressed with Kyrie Irving’s style. Some analysts and numerous basketball fans have accused “Uncle Drew” of trying to desperately come off as a philosopher and world problem-solver. Some of the point guard’s statements and convictions have exploded in his face.
It remains to be seen if the two will eventually agree to have that much-anticipated dialogue.
Dave Portnoy argues that Kyrie Irving is just too unreliable for his team to be successful
Kyrie Irving hasn’t had much success as his own man since leaving LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was injured in the 2018 playoffs and the Boston Celtics reached the Eastern Conference finals without him.
Irving returned in 2019 and could only help the Celtics to the semifinals where they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. There were reports that “Uncle Drew” gave up on his team when it looked like they were overmatched by the Bucks.
In nearly four years with the Brooklyn Nets, he won only one playoff series. In his last postseason appearance, he was swept by the Boston Celtics, the team he left to play for the Nets.
Dave Portnoy had this to say about why teams that signed Kyrie Irving haven’t had much success:
(1:37:25 mark)
“Here’s the thing with a team. You have a teammate you have to be able to depend on the court. And for him, I don’t care what he says, you have not been able to depend on that for a whole host of reasons. Whether he doesn’t wanna get the vaccine, or whatever. It’s just always something!
There’s a big possibility the planned sit-down between Dave Portnoy and Kyrie Irving will never happen. There seems to be too much of a gap between the two for a dialogue to happen.