Is Kyrie Getting a Bad Rap? | Dunk Bait

Is Kyrie Getting a bad Rap and are the consequences of not playing to costly?

Video Transcript

LAJETHRO JENKINS: Welcome to another episode of "Dunk Bait," where we talk mostly basketball. Today we talk about Kyrie being villainized and Draymond's interesting Twitter feed. Kyrie has voiced his concerns about starting up again.

You know what I mean, he's saying we'll be shifting the conversation a little bit from social reform, and doesn't think we should, necessarily, start the league back up. And people are [BLEEP] online. I think Kyrie has a point, if we're being honest. How do y'all feel about this?

ZACH SCHWARTZ: One of the things I was fortunate enough to get to work on before-- during quarantine was I got to interview several of the guys who put together his "Uncle Drew" movie. And kind of the big takeaway I had was everyone, both Lil Rel and the gentleman who wrote the movie, went into like-- kind of went out of their way to be like, let me just say like how smart and well meaning Kyrie is, well-intentioned, and just what an intelligent, thoughtful guy he is. I think it's good that there is this conversation around it.

I think-- and I really respect that he's kind of the guy standing out here, taking a lot of the trash people are throwing at him. I want the league to come back. But, you know, I understand.

JOSIAH JOHNSON: Like, look, man, Kyrie-- Kyrie was voted one of the VPs of the NBA Players Association. So, obviously, guys rock with him and respect him. I'm not really rolling with the way the media tried to spin it, as if Kyrie was trying to lead this big dissension. I think if you looked at the context of his quotes, he was basically saying that he was rocking either way. If he had to give up everything to focus on social-- social injustices and do that, he would do it.

But also he wanted-- you know, the NBA is a family. He wants everybody to come together and address all the grievances. And I think from the outside-- we've been talking about this for the past couple weeks-- going to Orlando and playing, to me, doesn't sound like the best idea. You're going to take the entire NBA-- all that the NBA has to offer-- and send them to Florida. Like we know what's cracking in Florida.

I think they're talking about this bubble, but it's not really a bubble if it has holes in it and people come in and out. I'm sure there are going to be fans of a lot of these dudes trying to run up on them, whatever. So all it takes is one sneeze to really ruin it for everybody.

LAJETHRO JENKINS: I think, you know, Kyrie is interesting. I think he proposes questions. He wants him to think outside of the box. I don't know if he necessarily believes everything he's saying. You know what I'm saying?

But in this situation, I believe what he's saying is factual. You know what I'm saying? It's based upon facts. Here's the facts when it comes to financially too. Like $1.2 billion will be lost in players' salary.

You know what I'm saying? Which I think they said was a 35% hit or something like that. CBA would have to be renegotiated. You know what I'm saying? That means BRIs are probably dropping because the play-- the owners have the leverage.

And then there's a $2 million loss for the league as a whole. And with that, you know, Kyrie will take a hit too. I'm hearing reports that, you know, even players, like top tier players, might have to-- if the percentages are renegotiated, they would be taking a hit financially too and have to, maybe even give money back to the league.

ZACH SCHWARTZ: Do you think there is more power in them having more money to finance activism in campaigns by playing-- taking the full check and doing with it what they want-- than they would if they didn't play, didn't get all the money that they got? Does that make sense?

JOSIAH JOHNSON: I mean, here's what I'll say about all this and what really troubles me as a black man in America, it feels like every time there's a problem in the world, everybody expects black men to go save the world, and go figure it out, and go do all these things. These dudes did not create racism. Them not playing is not going to erase racism. What's going to erase racism is not the players boycotting or doing any of that type of stuff. It's the owners stepping up.

And so far in the league, only one owner has really stepped to the plate, and that's Michael Jordan, with some type of contribution to the black community to help to address these issues going on. A lot of people have been silent. But I'm tired of seeing black men always being pushed to the forefront. Like they want LeBron to save everything. Like LeBron is supposed to cure everything going on in China.

He's supposed to fix racism. Kyrie is supposed to do that. That's not what these guys are supposed to do. I'm tired of these dudes being forced to be the ones that have to figure it all out. But until the white people that are running the country and have all the bread step up to the plate and say, we're trying to improve these things, they're not really going to change.

ZACH SCHWARTZ: This week, Draymond got a little sloppy with his likes, slapped a like on a tweet pertaining to Ayesha Curry that was not kind to her. What did you guys think when you saw it? What-- I mean, what is he doing?

JOSIAH JOHNSON: I really don't have any explanation for why Draymond would do this, other than he's trying to start some stuff. Because, you know, look, you've got the Ayesha Curry hashtag on it. It's clowning her. He liked it. Even when it was called out, it was still up for several hours.

I remember, you know, "Dunk Bait" posted it. Like I know we like to joke around and crack jokes on NBA Twitter and stuff. But this really felt like Draymond kind of taking some shots at Steph and his boo. And it's like, yo, dog.

LAJETHRO JENKINS: I mean, you got to be more careful when it comes to that type of stuff, man.

ZACH SCHWARTZ: When I found the tweet, it had one retweet and 11 likes. And one of those 11 was Draymond? Like how did he find it?

JOSIAH JOHNSON: If you're [INAUDIBLE] my boo and hashtagging my boo, come on, dog, let's save your time.

LAJETHRO JENKINS: And the thing we know about Steph, you know what I'm saying, Steph might not be big, he might not be the toughest, but he ain't afraid to fight.

JOSIAH JOHNSON: Shimmy on you. He'll give you the woo woo.

LAJETHRO JENKINS: All right, so that's the end of "Dunk Bait." I'm LaJethro Jenkins.

JOSIAH JOHNSON: KingJosiah54.

ZACH SCHWARTZ: I'm Zach Schwartz. Dave Chappelle put something out. It's 27 minutes. Go watch all of it. It was incredible. Have a good week, everybody.

JOSIAH JOHNSON: Yes.

[MUSIC PLAYING]