After trade demand, media bash Kyrie Irving but silent on management

Kyrie Irving, who was just named an All-Star starter for theEastern Conference, shocked the NBA world this week when hereportedly asked for a trade. He informed the Nets that he prefersto be traded ahead of the Feb. 9 deadline or he will plan to leavevia free agency in July, causing Brooklyn to lose him fornothing.

This trade demand was reportedly prompted by the fact that thetwo sides were unable to agree to the terms of a contractextension.

The Nets reportedly offered an extension to Irving; however, itincluded unprecedented “guarantee stipulations” tied to the teamwinning an NBA championship, according to Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.This appeared to offend Irving and his camp, thus resulting in thetrade demand.

This trade demand has been met with much criticism throughoutthe entire NBA world.

While discussing Irving’s trade request with Malika Andrews onNBA Today, Stephen A. Smith called Kyrie “idiotic”and added that “he cannot be trusted; he just reminded thebasketball world of that.”

Kendrick Perkins wenton a tirade on ESPN when asked about the situation.

“This is Kyrie Irving, a guy that you cannot trust,” Perkinssaid. “Didn’t Kyrie Irving just say that Kevin Durant was his bestfriend? Right? So where is the loyalty? Right? If that’s your bestfriend, I don’t want that. Give me an enemy. For the simple factthat when you look at how Kevin Durant has been riding for KyrieIrving since they arrived in Brooklyn… standing behind him throughwhatever his beliefs were, whatever he was doing, riding with himover James Harden.”

I caught up with Caleb from BrooklynNetcast, a site dedicated to covering the Nets, todiscuss this situation, how the Nets handled this, the mediabacklash toward Kyrie and much more.