With the 2020 NBA Finals having come to an end, all eyes are starting to shift toward next year with a focus on which team will dethrone the Los Angeles Lakers. One trendy pick is the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets, led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
The star duo has not played together yet; Durant was out all year rehabbing an Achilles tear. Irving himself struggled with injuries and did not play in the team’s first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors. Still, they already seem enamored with playing with each other and Irving, in particular, made some news this past week with an innocuous comment about Durant.
“One thing I’ve always been comfortable with is, I’ve felt like I was the best option on every team I’ve played for down the stretch. This is the first time in my career where I can be like “that motherf***** can make that shot, too.”
If that sounds a little odd to you, well it might be because you’re remembering that Irving played with one LeBron James and won a championship alongside arguably the greatest player of all time. That relationship did not end on the best terms (although the two have claimed that they have fixed it) so of course many are taking this as shade towards LeBron.
James himself may have seen it the same way, praising the Lakers and Anthony Davis later that day by saying there’s no jealousy in the locker room. It could have been a total coincidence that he brought that up as a reason for their success. Or a player that has always been phenomenal at pushing the narrative and finding motivation in anything found a way to take a slightly petty shot back at Irving.
For what it’s worth, Irving posted a series of videos on his Twitter later saying that he didn’t mean any of his comments as a shot to anyone, though he never mentioned LeBron by name.
We all know LeBron found motivation from this for games five and six of the Finals. But if the NBA Finals next year consist of the Lakers and the Nets, who some of New Jersey’s top sports betting sites consider one of the top two or three favorites from the East, then look out.
He only wishes he could have half the stats Lebron will have at the end of his career. I bet he gets mad every time he sees Lebron still winning championships, still dunking on others , still clutch shooting ? Yes Lebron has won many games at the final buzzer ), still surpassing the young ones in assists , blocks , scoring etc. when kyrie plays on lebrons level then we can talk