Gary Payton is not pleased with the way that one of his successors at the point guard position acted last season.
The retired former Defensive Player of the Year appeared this week on CBS Sports’ “Nothing Personal with David Samson.” In it, Payton reacted to the comments Kyrie Irving made last year about how he saw the Brooklyn Nets as having more than one head coach, himself and Kevin Durant included.
“That’s just a shame right there,” Payton said of Irving. “That should not be said. I think that that was a bad statement by him. You should respect the coaches. You should respect the guys that have been put in those positions.
“And if you want to be that guy, if you were a guy that was my superstar, and you come to me, you perform on the floor, do the things on the floor you’re supposed to, then I’m gonna bring you in on everything I’m doing anyway,” added Payton. “Because I wanna keep you happy and keep my team happy. That was a situation where he should have let [head coach] Steve Nash come to him and say … ‘Kyrie, what you need? What should we do? What do you like?’ But just to blow him off on Day One, it’s just kinda far-fetched.”
Nash, a contemporary of Payton’s, was a first-year head coach last season. He took on a tough situation with the Nets, having to juggle multiple stars and championship-or-bust expectations. While Brooklyn bowed out in the second round, the jury is still out on Nash because their injuries prevented us from getting the full picture of him as a head coach.
When it comes to Irving, he created other headaches for the team last year beyond just what he said to the media. Perhaps Year 2 of his partnership with Nash will yield some better results.
H/T Fadeaway World
