Kyrie Irving, deconstructed, is no Colin Kaepernick, but neither is Kap

This is a very good piece by Brian Phillips at The Ringer. It's about the walking mass of contradictions and self-indulgence that is Kyrie Irving, while also noting that he's had a real social background at times, like the bubble last year. Phillips also notes the power of the players in the NBA, starting with LeBron James being the first player to act to assemble a "superteam," then Kyrie working to step out from his shadow from the Cavs return years and do the same himself.

But, Phillips IMO doesn't go far enough.

Did Kyrie want the NBA and Adam Silver to undo the bubble because he was worried about endorsement $$$ as well as social justice? Not asked by Phillips. If Kyrie Irving really cares about his American Indian heritage, why has he gone to events on reservations maskless? Not asked by Phillips but asked elsewhere.

(There's the added fact that, per Irving's Instagram Live clip [I don't do Instagram] he acts puzzled that the Nets wouldn't give him kid-gloves treatment,  per this Fansided blog. And, maybe that reflects part of the problem. I'd have to agree with ESPN's Bobby Marks and others that it's unlikely he plays a game for the Nets this year ... or ever. That leads to a sidebar: Can the Nets list him as physically unable to perform or in any other way get any NBA relief? Maybe they shouldn't get such relief. They chose to sign a player known to be disliked by previous teammates.)

Then there's the shitshow of some people comparing him to Colin Kaepernick, especially in light of more and more Chucky Gruden emails being unveiled, with one email saying that a team should "cut the fuck." There's the BS of him attacking Eric Reid as well, and also his bullshit over PEDing.

There's even more racism, when talking about Robert Griffin III still playing, while Tim Tebow isn't. Real answer is that Griff's second-best year was the same as Tebow's best and his third-best year was about as good, or TLDR, Tebow sucked.

That said, Colin Kaepernick may still be laughing all the way to the bank himself, as I said a couple of years ago.

We can all agree that Chucky Gruden is a racist, homophobic, misogynist dumb fuck. Are there others in NFL positions of power? The Shield claims not. Sure. We know Redscum, now WFT, GM Bruce Allen shared Gruden's email about Kaep. But to whom?