NBA superstar Kyrie Irving reveals he did NOT want to play for Team USA and claims he was blocked from representing country of his birth
NBA superstar Kyrie Irving reveals he did NOT want to play for Team USA and claims he was blocked from representing his native country
- Kyrie Irving says he can no longer play for Australia
- Irving, 31, was born Down Under before returning to the US
- He wanted to represent the Boomers, but was not allowed to
Controversial NBA superstar Kyrie Irving had set his sights on representing the Australian national basketball team before a transfer was blocked by Team USA.
Irving, 31, was born in Melbourne in 1992 to foreign parents before returning to the United States at the age of two.
But despite his brief stay in Down Under, Irving has revealed that he doesn’t consider himself an American basketball player.
“I consider myself an international player even though I played on Team USA,” Irving said on a Twitch stream.
“Many of my peers make fun of me when I bring it up and some fans may disagree, but I was born in Australia.”
Dallas star Kyrie Irving says he didn’t want to represent the US national basketball team
Irving won gold in 2016, but was not allowed to represent his native country
Irving, who won the 2016 NBA title and Olympic gold that same year, was asked to represent Team USA as a prodigious 17-year-old, but wanted to represent the Boomers instead.
However, his desire to play for Australia was blocked by the forces in the US lineup.
“Team USA asked me to play for them when I was 17 or 18. I wanted to play for Australia, but it just didn’t happen,” he added.
“Coach K (former Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski) wouldn’t let that happen either.”
Despite missing out on Irving, the Boomers have had a plethora of NBA talent in their ranks over the years, with Ben Simmons, Jock Landale and Patty Mills representing Australia on the international stage.
Widely regarded as one of basketball’s most controversial figures, Irving has drawn criticism for expressing flat-Earth theories, anti-vaccine sentiment, and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
He claims Mike Krzyzewski stopped him from representing the Boomers instead of Team USA
During one of his posts, he took aim at Bill Gates by reposting a video assessing his role in vaccine production and how he benefited from the Covid-19 global pandemic.
He is not one to shy away from big problems. He also talked about the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and reposted a tweet highlighting a possible scenario where “more banks will collapse and the financial system (will) spiral out of control.”
In a separate post, he also posted a quote that reads, “Unlearning all the false information we have been programmed with takes time and patience. You have this.’