Ric Bucher tries his hand at reading the tea leaves regarding Kyrie Irving’s mental state and the impact it is having on the Brooklyn Nets.
The Brooklyn Nets are becoming a lightning rod for talking heads. It’s not even 2020 and there has already been a flood of rumors and reports about why there are deep-rooted problems in Brooklyn. NBA analyst Ric Bucher told WFAN that Kyrie Irving‘s problems are about more than “just physical issues.”
“I hate to buy into salacious rumors, but I’ve heard it from enough different places, and some of which I give credibility, that there’s a lot more going on with Kyrie than just physical issues, that he’s struggling,” Bucher told Maggie Gray and Marc Malusis of WFAN. “I think we remember the Instagram post after the Boston reception, or rather reaction, and so there’s some things that he has to work out, I don’t know, psychologically, mentally, however you want to determine it.
“But my understanding is that there’s more going on here than just physical issues, and where that stands and what he’s doing to get that taken care of, I don’t know, but there are some troubling signs that I’ve been told that there’s more than just physical ailments that he’s dealing with.”
It is entirely possible that Irving is dealing with off-the-court issues in addition to whatever is going on in his basketball life. He’s human and that happens to everyone.
Many will point to Brooklyn’s first game in Boston this season where Celtics fans taunted Irving the entire game as a reason or example of Irving’s unhappiness. The All-NBA point guard didn’t make the trip due to his injury, but he heard the chants and posted an emotional message to his Instagram story following the game.
With all that said, it’s impossible to know what is causing Irving mental stress or if these rumors from Bucher are even remotely true. Remember, Bucher was one of the talking heads loudly sounding the alarm that Kevin Durant to the New York Knicks was “done.”
We shouldn’t dismiss everything he says outright because of that, but it’s important to remember the context of it all. He’s saying this on a radio show and even refers to what he’s hearing as “salacious rumors.”