Kyrie Irving has been receiving a ton of criticism over the last few months and much of it has to do with his supposed "mood swings." Some people have been complaining about Irving and how he tends to become distant with those around him which creates some tension. These critiques have become louder over the last week now that Irving is out with a shoulder injury. Kyrie's latest teammate, Iman Shumpert, was recently interviewed about Irving and as he explains, Irving is just a regular guy.
“Everybody gets to tweet whatever they want nowadays, and now they’re talking about how Ky doesn’t want to play against Boston?” Shumpert explained to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “It’s like gee, y’all saw the man shoot it bad. His shoulder was bothering him. It just happens to be on the schedule.”
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When it comes to Kyrie distancing himself from his teammates, Shumpert thinks it's more a question of him feeling alienated than anything else.
“People separate from him thinking he wants to separate — but he doesn’t want to separate,” Shumpert said. “He is actually pretty regular. If you treat him like an alien, then he’ll be an alien. If you make it up in your mind that he’s an alien and I don’t need to talk to him, then he’s not going to say anything to you. Because he feels alienated.”
We are only just a few weeks into the season so far so it will be interesting to see how this all shakes up in the long run. It seems like Kyrie's teammates like him but he continues to receive criticism from the media.