The recent NBA offseason had two headlines dominating the entire time. One was Ben Simmons' dramatic saga with the Philadelphia 76ers. The other was Kyrie Irving's desperate fight against the COVID-19 vaccine. Some fans might have enjoyed the shenanigans these two players caused, but a recent survey revealed that most people didn't like their antics.
A recent poll conducted by the Morning Consult revealed that Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons are the top two NBA players who were disliked by both fans and non-fans. Here's the full quote from the website:
Guard-forward Ben Simmons… tied with Nets guard Kyrie Irving for last in net favorability (13) and had the second-highest share of unfavorable responses with 19 percent.
Irving tied with Simmons for last in net favorability and had the highest share of unfavorable responses with 24 percent. That’s double the 12 percent who had a negative opinion of him in Morning Consult’s 2018 “Most Loved Entertainers” report.
Yeesh. Many neutral fans seemed to have fun with Irving and Simmons' sagas, but clearly that wasn't shared by other, more invested players. Irving, it seems, was the more hated of the two, and it's easy to see why. Ben Simmons' issue, while a big deal for basketball fans, doesn't really have any meaningful repercussions outside of the NBA. That issue is more like some soap-opera shit that only the most invested of fans get mad at.
However, Irving's case has real-world implications. First of all, it involves the current COVID-19 pandemic: a big issue outside of the NBA. Irving refusing the vaccine isn't really something you can disregard, since it can affect other people, whether directly or indirectly. It makes sense that a greater number of people don't really like Kyrie Irving, especially after the mental gymnastics he's doing to dodge the vaccine.
In that same report, it was revealed that Stephen Curry (unsurprisingly) was the most-loved NBA player, over LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
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