Not Larry Bird. Not Big Bird. Just the bird, flipped quite loudly by Kyrie Irving to the fans in Boston. Sure this happened two days ago, but the NBA finally levied the fine for Irving – $50,000. Sure it’s a crude gesture given to a bunch of people who help pay his salary, but really I think the NBA should be giving Kyrie a bonus rather than fining him.
There’s a Lebron sized hole in the NBA playoffs this year. I’m not complaining about it much though because that should mean the constant Lebron vs Jordan conversation should die down on social media for a while. You can debate who’s the better player all you want, but there’s no denying Lebron is the biggest star from a marketing perspective. (I understand he may not be the best player in the league right now and that there are more kids who are Steph Curry fans but the NBA, Sports Media, and social media flock to Lebron because he’s a polarizing character, and is still pretty good.) When your marquee time to get fans and views, the NBA Playoffs, is missing the marketing star you need something else to draw in viewers.
The Kyrie “bird” is just the thing. Kyrie is already a polarizing character – you love him on your team, but outside of that he can rub you the wrong way. Whether it’s his flat earther comments, his refusal to get play (by refusing to get vaccinated), or just the fact that he hops from team to team (though who doesn’t now days) – he causes a stir in pretty much anything he does. So when he made a return to a former team’s arena, in the playoffs, he didn’t disappoint on Sunday.
Admittedly, I didn’t watch the game on Sunday. For some reason watching NBA games in the middle of the day feels weird to me. But the only game I heard about from the weekend’s playoff games was the Brooklyn – Boston game. Sure it happened to be the only game that came down to a one-possession finish (which is probably part of the reason I don’t watch many NBA games anymore), but that wasn’t the only reason the game made the news. Kyrie is the reason the game made the news. A one point, last second winner will make the highlights on Sports Center but the story will die there. The off-court battle between the Boston fans and Kyrie was what made this stick, and made most fans realize the playoffs have started.
Kyrie isn’t the first athlete to flip the bird to the fans, and he won’t be the last. AJ Hawk famously did it as well and has recovered nicely in his post playing days. So it’s not like it’s a kiss of death to any player’s career. Yet whenever it’s talked about the pundits and announcers have to call it childish, juvenile, disgusting, depraved, and whatever other insult they can come up with to condemn the act. I take it the other way – the NBA possibly more than any other sport is about what’s going on around the game. Take a trip to any NBA game and there’s basically a circus going on when the game is at a stoppage. So they focus on entertainment. Kyrie just went WWE on it. He embraced the villain role. He’s bringing in the attention for fans who may have gotten busy with their spring schedule.
The one thing that is hard to capture over a long season like the 82 game schedule the NBA has is to keep the emotion levels high. These are highly paid and highly skilled athletes playing a game for a living. It’s only natural over that length of a grind that the emotion will drop from time to time. But once the playoffs hit, things can come at a different pace. Last week the Minnesota Timberwolves showed a lot of emotion winning their home play-in game (it may have been too much emotion, but go big or go home). On the flip side (pun intended), Kyrie lost and showed he cared. And showed the fans did their job in turn as well – to give the home team a boost. The emotion of the game is what we care about in any sport – it’s what makes it fun. If you expect the high emotions to come out in games, you need to embrace the low emotions when they come as well. Kyrie’s emotions were on the low side, but for that he drew in eyes of casual fans – and more money for his company. The man deserves a bonus, not a fine.