NBA media personality Kendrick Perkins took issue with Kyrie Irving's “lack of leadership” by unloading a rant on his decision to oppose a restart of the 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World.
The big man went hard at Irving during Wednesday's iteration of ESPN' Get Up, shaming Irving for his dumbfounding ideas:
“If you take Kyrie Irving’s brain and put it in a bird right now, guess what that bird is going to do? It’s going to fly backwards. Because Kyrie right now, he's confused,” said Perkins. “He's showing his lack of leadership.
“Here it is, Kyrie. You have been at these conference calls during the past two months. You're the Vice President of the players' association. You have been very involved in all of this that has taken place for us, whether or not we're gonna play or not. You've been on the phone and you have voted to play.”
Perkins proceeded to regurgitate much of the same stuff former NBA player Matt Barnes noted in a recent conversation with co-host Stephen Jackson, citing Irving's rancor with the league is a result of him being denied the access to take part in an Orlando restart.
Irving not only led the players' coalition in asking the league for more detail in their health and security measures, but also spearheaded concerns about potential career-derailing injuries after a long layoff, lack of freedom while at the bubble, and cited poor optics of restarting the season at a time of civil unrest.
Perkins' criticism of Irving was relentless, even if his earlier bird metaphor was quite strange:
“In my opinion, when you look at Kyrie, I'm okay with you changing your mind and having a different way of thinking and saying we need to take a stance and sit out, but what is the plan after that? He didn't have one,” said Perkins.
That much is true. Irving hasn't relayed a contingency plan to sit out the season — a decision that could cost the NBA and its players billions of dollars in revenue.
All he's floated is the vague idea of players starting their own league, which sounds a lot more like mutiny than a clear plan of action.