If everything surrounding Brooklyn Nets superstar Kyrie Irving wasn't already strange enough, the man who is as polarizing as he is talented left even more for the basketball community to talk about after Thursday night. More on that in a second, though.

As much as we want to see our favorite NBA players play every single game they possibly can, it’s just not possible. There are a lot of factors that come into play, from injuries, suspensions, personal reasons, DNP’s, and of course, the growing fad of load management.

Then, there’s the curious case of Kyrie Irving, who sat out the Brooklyn Nets’ match against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday simply because he didn’t want to play.

Irving’s head coach Steve Nash as well as his teammates have already denied these claims.

But given Uncle Drew’s notorious reputation, it just seems that missing a game for no reason and no explanation at all is just a very “Kyrie-thing” to do.

Regardless of what got into Irving’s head, the league is no stranger to having players miss games for rather unusual reasons.

Let’s recount some of the most bizarre cases that sidelined NBA players over the years. This list will not include any Kyrie Irving related shenanigans.

Tim Duncan DNP-old

The Spurs practically invented load management right around the twilight years of their legendary trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili.

While the issue of willingly sitting out healthy players has been a source of controversy, coach Gregg Popovich still found some a way to make light of the situation.

Back in 2012, Pop submitted what appeared to be a pretty standard line-up list with injury descriptions. Listed below as DNP (did not play) is arguably the franchise’s best player in history Tim Duncan, for one hilarious reason. He’s old.

Jermaine O’Neal- passport issues

NBA players do travel a lot so it should be a cardinal rule by now for them to have their passport at all times. O’Neal, however, somehow still missed that memo and left his at home when he played for the Warriors in 2014. It wouldn’t have been an issue had the game been on US soil.

Unfortunately, the Dubs were scheduled to take on the Raptors in Toronto at the time. JO was barred from entering Canada and had to sit out the game, leaving his team undermanned.

Rajon Rondo- it was his birthday

Most people still go to work on their birthdays. This even includes guys like Kyrie Irving. Heck, a lot of NBA players enjoy big nights on the floor when playing on their special day. Unfortunately for the Celtics back in 2014, their starting point guard would rather celebrate his 28th birthday than perform his job.

Rondo has since denied these claims but hasn’t really given the team (or the media) a better excuse why he was on street clothes that day.

Samuel Dalembert – overslept (twice)

Most of us are guilty of pressing the snooze button of our alarm clocks early in the morning. Dalembert, however, took it to a whole different level by completely ignoring it on two separate occasions – earning the ire of the Dallas Mavericks back in 2014.

The Mavs brass sanctioned him by removing him from the starting line-up when he missed an entire shootaround. A few days later, he was late to a workout, forcing Dallas to suspend him for one game in 2014.

Derek Anderson – “toothache”

That Jail Blazers team of the early 2000s certainly had plenty of entertaining stories. The Blazers were left without their super-sub Derek Anderson for a couple of games after claiming that a severe toothache hindered his ability to play.

His absence would have been completely understandable, had he not been spotted at a McDonald's drive-thru window one night while his team was supposed to be playing a game in the Rose Garden.

Monta Ellis- moped accident

Monta-Ellis, Kyrie Irving

Technically, Ellis missed some time for the Warriors back in 2008 due to a bum ankle. While it’s a pretty usual occurrence among basketball players during games, Ellis injured himself while doing something he wasn’t allowed to be doing in the first place.

After initially claiming he got injured playing pick-up basketball, Ellis later admitted he got hurt while riding a moped during is downtime. Ellis just signed a $66 million extension with the team at the time, which endangered the deal since riding mopeds are prohibited under the league’s uniform player contract.

The Dubs ended up suspending Ellis for 30 days for breach of contract.

If Kyrie Irving truly missed the game just because, given what happened with these other NBA players, maybe it isn't all that bad.