Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins may be left scratching his head at the comments that All-Star guard Kyrie Irving directed towards him on Twitter, as the impending free agent would call Jenkins immature for calling out his team amid a playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Speaking about your team like this during a series is Immature, But what do I know. Lol I am @ home relaxing with my family.
Hélà
🤞🏾♾— Chief Hélà🤞🏾A11Even Tribe (@KyrieIrving) April 25, 2023
Jenkins, with his team down 3-1 to the Lakers in the First Round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs despite having the second-best record in the Western Conference, would have this to say about the Grizzlies following Game 4 (h/t Joe Vardon of The Athletic):
“We're far from where we need to be from a maturity standpoint.”
“This is all experience that you can only gain from,” Jenkins continues. “So, nothing's gonna change overnight, but when we wear it, and we understand the struggles we're going through individually, collectively, on, off the court and all that stuff, and we sit down and we honestly talk about it, and we face it, you're hopefully gonna turn the corner for sure.”
Obviously, Irving takes exception to a head coach publicly calling his team out while their backs are against the wall in an elimination series. Perhaps he believes those are conversations that should take place behind closed doors rather than in front of microphones.
That said, there's little question that immaturity has played a part in the Grizzlies being in this position. The primary problem being veteran forward Dillon Books taking his antics to another level by taunting the league's all-time leading scorer in LeBron James.
Less about LeBron than Brooks despite his kill-shots against the Grizzlies in Game 4, the war of words demonstrates a lack of focus from Brooks and a lack of necessary respect for their competitors. After all, star guard Ja Morant infamously said prior to the 2022-23 season that the Grizzlies had no teams to worry about in the West.
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