Stephen A. Smith JUDGES Kyrie Irving’s worth without LeBron James, asks star guard to stop talking

Stephen A. Smith calls out Kyrie Irving for having no great success since leaving LeBron James.

Stephen A. Smith JUDGES Kyrie Irving’s worth without LeBron James, asks star guard to stop talking

LeBron James, Stephen A. Smith and Kyrie Irving

Stephen A. Smith is back in the NBA headlines with another interesting take of his. This time he has respectfully called out Kyrie Irving and his career since parting ways with LeBron James. Kyrie Irving and LeBron James won a championship together with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Bron has bagged more titles without him. But Kai is yet to do that and hasn’t recorded any great success since the 2018 season.

A basketball-based page, “Basketball Forever,” tweeted out a graphic displaying how Kyrie Irving hasn’t had much success since leaving LeBron James. Without Bron, he has missed playoffs, lost in 2nd rounds, missed the play-in tournament, and has even recorded a sweep in the first round but on the wrong end. Some of these runs had him limited because of injuries but that doesn’t change the story. But Irving is focused on changing it all. Retweeting it he wrote, “Pin this tweet and see what happens in the next few years. Hélà??♾?”

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Stephen A. Smith on the recent episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” reacted to it and called out Kyrie. Smith quoted: “If he wants to be seen as the champion that he deserves to be seen as so be it he is a champion, and the reason why I say that and I keep reminding everybody that yes, he didn’t win the title without LeBron, he needed LeBron to do it. LeBron needed him too. LeBron was not beating Golden State without Kyrie performing the way that Kyrie performed… People forget.”

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Further, Stephen A. Smith went on to appreciate Kyrie Irving’s deep bag of skills, especially, his handles. But then did a brutal comparison of his with Bron. There he pointed out how Kyrie Irving has to be a better leader and get the team going with him. Then Smith went on to discuss Kai’s time with all the teams he has played. He criticized him for most of those runs but not for his time with the Dallas Mavericks. Further, being very direct and calling out Kyrie Irving, SAS said: “But the bottom line is that he hasn’t proven he can win without LeBron. The proof isn’t there that he could win without LeBron and it’s going to stay that way until he wins without LeBron.”

Related: Kyrie Irving SNAPS, fires warning after getting called out for failures since ditching LeBron James

Stephen A. Smith wants Kyrie Irving to stop responding to critics

Kyrie Irving (Credits: Getty Images)
Kyrie Irving (Credits: Getty Images)

In the same episode, Smith once again addressed Kyrie Irving’s retweet to the basketball-based page.

Here is what Stephen A. Smith had to say: “The problem that I have with the Kyrie quote tho. See to me if you are a boxer say that, you are a tennis player say that, you are a golfer say that. Kyrie Irving went to Dallas last year and did his job. But they didn’t have a team. So you answer a critic that says that you haven’t had success with LeBron. You are acting that you as an individual can change those fortunes. You can’t.”

Smith correctly mentioned how Kyrie Irving needs a team to get the job done and can’t just single-handedly win a championship. So him talking doesn’t really make sense, instead, he should focus on dominating his rivals on the court. Also, the analyst is expecting a sensational season from Kai once the action begins.

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