Right now Kyrie Irving is the most talked about name in the national basketball Association and unfortunately it has nothing to do with his prodigious on-court exploits. It has already been publicized ad nauseum that Kyrie is one of the few players in the NBA who has chosen not to undergo the COVID-19 vaccination and because of a vaccine mandate in New York he cannot participate in home games or practices due to his unvaccinated status. The Brooklyn Nets, in showing that they are the player-focused franchise that they are, have told Kyrie to stay home until he gets the shot.
The talking windbags that have infested the sports media have long done the bidding of their paymasters when it comes to the matter of Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving is far from perfect and the sports media never misses on an opportunity to disparage the brother, often questioning his intelligence and his sanity. So pervasively successful has this campaign been that it is now widely accepted that he is merely a petulant nut case.
When the Kyrie vaccination status controversy arose, for the sports media, it was akin to putting an antelope fillet in front of a hungry lion. It not only gave them free rein to talk about Kyrie but also they got to talk down on/lecture a black man who had the unmitigated intrepidity not to do what they thought he should do.
In addition to the usual suspects of loud mouth meat sacks like Stephen A. Smith, new actors have entered this fray. Molly Qurim who is infamously known for giving her opinion that no one asked for decided she needed to weigh in, saying she was “confused” after Kyrie went live on social media and clearly outlined his thoughts and intentions not only on the vaccine but his basketball future. Kyrie was very clear in what he said in the video, but listening to some of the utterly daft things that have tumbled off Molly’s lips it’s no surprise she was confused.
Then out of nowhere ESPN reporter Malika Andrews decided to channel her inner Jemele Hill and finger wag at a black man, saying
“I asked Kevin Durant about his thoughts about Kyrie, he said it was an ‘individual choice’. I understand in some ways taking that approach or maybe that’s just what you say facing forward, but that is the antithesis of what a pandemic is. You do not have the privilege of just looking at yourself,” Andrews said.
“You have to look at the people next to you because that’s how we got to this being the most deadly pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in the United States. That’s not all on Kyrie, but it’s on all of us to do our small part and his small part is in that locker room.”
This high degree of displeasure or, bordering on rancor directed at Kyrie is simply the most fictitious of outrage. This becomes even more apparent because Kyrie Irving is not the only high-profile NBA athlete that has not taken the jab. Washington Wizards star guard Bradley Beal is also unvaccinated. At the media day before the start of the NBA season, Beal asked several poignant and lucid questions about the vaccine during an exchange with a reporter.
Somehow Stephen A. Smith didn’t think the Bradley Beal, not his decision was stupid or selfish. Somehow Molly Karen was not confused at all about what Beal had to say. Enes Kanter does LeBron James have the same responsibility for Bradley Beal to take the vaccination as well?
What say, you Malika Andrews?
Taking it a step further and exposing the fake Kyrie Irving-directed outrage, in Stephen A’s beloved very own New York City, the largest NYPD union is suing over the city’s vaccine mandate. The silence for Mr. Smith on this issue is deafening especially considering how he talked about the importance of not letting people down and winning the basketball championship as if it was the be-all, end-all in life. Granted Irving has reiterated many times his love for the game of basketball but even with that love, he has shown an ability to keep things in perspective. If you all recall when the NBA season before last resumed in the bubble Carrie was one of the players who didn’t think they should play and not necessarily for fear of Covid but more or less because of the climate of what was going on at that time and still kind of is in other words he thought there were more important things than them playing basketball in that particular time. Does Smith not think that the service and protection of the public carry just a tad bit more weight than who can put the ball in the hoop the most times in 48 minutes? Are those officers and municipal workers selfish or are their reasons stupid for not wanting to get the vaccine? We don’t know because Stephen A. Smith hasn’t said anything about it.
Charles Barkley ,who has no problem opening his mouth and inserting police boots, on TNT’s NBA opening night broadcast went on a rant chastising Irving ( and praising the Nets) that sounded like an ad that Johnson & Johnson or Morderna would love to use to promote vaccines. Barkley who is often touted for speaking his mind, including making excuses for the anti-black racism exhibited by police, somehow has not gotten around to speaking on the reluctance of many NYPD officers to get the jab. Are those officers letting down their fellow brothers in blue as Kyrie was accused of with his teammates?
Once again the sports media, and media as a whole, has been exposed for their blatant hypocrisy. Unfortunately, it is just another sickening episode of the dereliction of their duty report to news, rather than mere purveyors of the stratagems of their paymasters.
