Stephen A. Smith admits to having ‘personal’ issues with Kyrie Irving after repeatedly slamming him

Stephen A. Smith has previously been critical of Mavs guard Kyrie Irving, and the ESPN commentator has admitted he has issues with the mercurial talent on a ‘personal level.

As Irving missed most of last season with the Nets due to New York City’s private sector vaccine mandate (he was unvaccinated), Smith was a loud voice slamming his lack of availability .

And roughly a month after the Nets granted Irving’s trade demand, Smith has opened up on his relationship – or lack thereof – with the player. 

 ‘Now Kyrie and I have our differences on a personal level, which is none of anybody’s business and I’ll never tell why,’ Smith said,’ on The Mike Missanelli Podcast.

 ‘He knows why. And his daddy knows why. They know how I feel about how they’ve acted towards me and they know how I feel about them and I know how they feel about me. 

Stephen A. Smith has not been shy in criticizing Kyrie Irving in the past

Irving has scored well in Dallas but the Mavericks are just 5-6 since he got there

‘But I can say that to anybody out there because I know that that does not interfere with my reporting on him and my perspective based off of the facts.’

Smith got into a fierce argument with Jay Williams on First Take after the Nets-Mavs trade, as he accused Smith of being harder on Irving than other athletes.

Irving himself has also publicly criticized Smith in the past. 

‘@stephanasmith you’re gonna have to explain yourself to people in your generation,’ Irving said in a tweet last year.

 ‘I am not around many 50 plus year olds that speak and act like you do, so this is new for me. But I am sure my father and my uncles can meet you on your level better than I can. We know you STEPHEN.’

The former Cavs, Celtics and Nets guard played just 29 regular season games for Brooklyn last season, and missed seven games for undisclosed ‘personal reasons’ the season prior.

Irving also missed eight games earlier this season after he shared an Amazon link to an anti-Semitic film on his Twitter, with the team suspending him and forcing him to complete several requirements to return to the court.

Smith was critical of Irving and Kevin Durant after both players got their wishes and were traded out of Brooklyn in February. 

‘I want players to elevate their level of power, but something like this will stain the future and you’ll have owners highly reluctant to defer to players, they’re gonna hold to control & power & use Kyrie Irving as an example,’ he said on First Take.

Kyrie Irving has averaged 27.5 points per game and 5.1 rebounds since joining the Mavs

Smith also had words for Irving after he opted to stay in Brooklyn on a $37million player option, after testing the trade market in the offseason.

‘You know what it means to me? I guess he’s a peon too,’ Smith said. 

‘So you gotta’ go to work, gotta’ show up to work. You gotta’ go up there and earn that money. Because even if you plan on leaving the Brooklyn Nets, because we all know that Kyrie doesn’t plan on staying in Brooklyn for the full year, he’s offended, he’s appalled, he’s put back by the fact that the Brooklyn Nets actually said, ‘You have to show up to earn your money.”

While Irving has played well in Dallas, that hasn’t stopped the Mavericks from falling down the Western Conference standings.

Despite Irving’s 27.5 points per contest with the Mavs, they’re just 5-6 since he joined the team.