Brandon Tierney Rips Kyrie Irving For Going AWOL and Not Contacting Steve Nash
Kyrie Irving missed the Brooklyn Nets' game against the Philadelphia 76ers Thursday night due to a personal issue. The problem is, he didn't inform the team he wouldn't be attending. While teammates did hear from him, he didn't return head coach Steve Nash's texts. Brandon Tierney called that move, "utterly unacceptable."
Steve Nash said he does not know why Kyrie Irving won't play tonight against the Sixers, as in, he is unaware of what KI's personal issue is. Nash said he reached out to Kyrie and did not hear back
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) January 7, 2021
Tierney went on Friday's edition of Tiki and Tierney fired up, and he lit into Irving for going AWOL on the organization. In a segment that lasted more than 17 minutes, Tierney went on a protracted rant that cut Brooklyn's point guard to shreds. He even advocated for the Nets suspending Irving.
Here's a clip of it:
"This is utterly unacceptable. The erratice nature of Kyrie is once again on full display. This is a joke. That is weak. That is wrong. If I'm the Nets, I'm suspending Kyrie"@BrandonTierney goes off on Kyrie's no-show, no-response to Nash and the Netshttps://t.co/C98rE6gN6y pic.twitter.com/37FYa24Zpe
— TikiAndTierney (@TikiAndTierney) January 8, 2021
You can watch the entire rant at this link, it's definitely worth a watch.
Tierney makes a great point that if Irving didn't feel like playing for whatever reason, that's fine, but the fact that he didn't reach out to anyone in charge was wildly unprofessional. He's making $33.46 million this year, the least he can do is return a text from his coach to let him know what's up and that he's OK.
Irving and Kevin Durant are Brooklyn's leaders and it's not much to ask that he at least contact his head coach when he needs a day off.
As of today, Irving has finally gotten in touch with Nash and he won't be playing tonight in Memphis. His status for Sunday's game against Oklahoma City is still up in the air.