This was dumb, under the guise of humor (isn’t it always?). Perhaps you heard John Wall call All-Star voting, “a joke,” after Kyrie Irving outpaced him for second place among Eastern guards in the first All-Star game voting results on Christmas. This despite the fact the Cavs point had only played two games at the time — whereas Wall had been playing all season and recently won Conference Player of the Month.
Well, Wall and Irving had supposedly patched things up off the court after the brouhaha the comments caused, but — apparently — the Wizards didn’t get the memorandum. Here’s Chris Haynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer explaining how a second-quarter satire based off Wall’s comments actually may have helped spur Irving’s big fourth-quarter in the 121-115 Cavs win Wednesday night.
In the second quarter during a timeout, the Wizards’ in-game entertainment crew presented a questionable spoof that ended up biting them in the rear. It was intended to be lighthearted and humorous, but failed miserably.
On the Jumbotron it showed fans attending the game in Cavaliers apparel being asked in the concourse who belonged in the All-Star Game between Wall and Irving. Every single fan said Wall, and you could tell they were instructed to answer that way.
The bit went on long enough that it got the Cavaliers’ attention from their huddle, and they didn’t take too kindly to it.
“Nah, we didn’t like it as a team. We didn’t like it at all,” guard J.R. Smith said with a stone face.
“Yeah, I saw it for sure,” LeBron James chimed in. “I’ve been dealing with that my entire career.”
Irving scored 19 of his 32 points in that blistering fourth, and the majority of those buckets came against Wall. Kyrie was shimmying toward the hoop to set up that wet step-back jumper of his and it was all clicking in the final session.
https://media.giphy.com/media/3o6UAY2BfTdCKXCI2k/giphy.gif
Seriously, what injury?
https://media.giphy.com/media/3oxRmtYcge4FqtMZA4/giphy.gif
But when Haynes asked Irving if the video affected him at all, he didn’t seem to care.
“It is what it is,” he said. “I really have no comment. Real talk, no comment.”
(Via Cleveland Plain Dealer)
