He’s a box office superstar talent, bringing fans through the turnstiles. Pundits might even argue he’s the most watchable player in the NBA with his shifty step-backs and silky smooth layups, moves that he practiced growing up in his West Orange home without a backboard square. While fans are left in awe from his on-court craftsmanship, his off-court controversy has ruffled at least a few feathers and even prevented him from showing up to work.
Ever since Irving was drafted into the league, his public image has been marked by a series of controversial statements, which have enraged many fans along the way. Much like Aaron Rodgers, Irving has a track record of spreading conspiracy theories behind the mic. He appeared on the podcast “Road Trippin’” in 2017, where he claimed that the Earth was flat. He doubled down in 2018, talking about moon landings but then later apologized for the comments without actually denying that the Earth was flat.
In the meantime, he assured Boston Celtics fans that he would plan to re-sign with the team during the 2018–19 season, but with Kevin Durant’s proposal to form a superteam in Brooklyn, the former Boston star slowly walked back on his promise. The temptation of forming the ‘Big 3’ was too much for Hélà.
But his time in Brooklyn was certainly not absent from controversy. Although his performance was stellar, he barely showed up to work. During the 2021–22 season, when millions of New Yorkers went back to work, he refused the COVID-19 vaccination, making him ineligible to play home games in Brooklyn. Because he refused to put the team first, Irving spent half the season only playing away games.
Irving also missed more games due to reasons unrelated to vaccines. In October 2022, he tweeted a link to the film “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” which has been deemed antisemitic. The Brooklyn Nets suspended Irving indefinitely without pay until he partially apologized for the comments without fully condemning them. Nike later severed ties with the hooper for his promotion of his film, and his signature sneaker was discontinued. Again, Irving could not help himself from taking to X, formerly Twitter, and stirring controversy. The team later suffered without him.
Irving’s selfishness was undoubtedly the cause of the separation of the ‘Big 3.’ While Durant, Irving and James Harden were certainly efficient when they played together (and clearly would have won the championship in 2021 if Durant didn’t have the feet of a baguette), they were on the court together for only 16 games in an 82-game season. Their time together was astounding, but their limited appearances as a trio were certainly due to Irving’s inability to get his act together. By April 2023, not one of them played basketball for the Nets. Although the trio brought the franchise within contention for the first time since the Jason Kidd era, Irving almost certainly caused the superteam to disband.
“Hate Index” Ranking
Using a program I wrote, I performed a sentiment analysis index on Reddit posts regarding Irving. After scraping through subreddits over the past 5 years, I gained some key insights into the distribution of ‘hate’ with Irving. Irving earns a “Hate Index” ranking of 0.293, with the following posts exceeding a certain negativity threshold. Interestingly, Irving earns the most hate per post from the Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers subreddits, likely because of Irving leaving the Celtics and also previously requesting a trade in 2017 from the Cavaliers in order to be the focal point of another team.
There is no doubt that Irving has entertained many, yet enraged even more. Following his turbulent run in Brooklyn, he reestablished himself in Dallas and helped Luka Dončić reach the finals in 2024, proving that brilliance and controversy remain inseparable parts of his story.