Kyrie Irving has never been fond of the media. In many ways, the two have been at odds for years as Irving continuously feels resentment towards the way he is portrayed. Meanwhile, the media feels as though Irving has always been disrespectful towards them. This has led to a fractured relationship in which Irving refuses to even speak to reporters after games. This trend began earlier this season back in December, and while things got patched up, recently, Irving has begun to avoid media availabilities, again.
As a result of these moves, Irving is now being fined $35K by the league. To make matters worse, the Brooklyn Nets organization is also being fined $35K which just goes to show how seriously the NBA takes this kind of stuff.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1390068402450944002
Realistically, this amount of money won't prove to be a significant deterrent for Irving who makes millions of dollars every year. However, it will be interesting to see if Irving makes the effort to talk with the media more often, especially if there are financial implications involved.
With the Brooklyn Nets heading towards the playoffs, they will need Irving to be at his best and at this point, it looks like avoiding the media has given him that edge the team needs.
