Kevin Durant defends Kyrie Irving on Twitter … in very strong terms

Olden Polynice hasn’t played in the NBA since 2003-04 when at age 39 he played two games for the Clippers. But he did play more than 1,000 games in the NBA and so in some quarters, he has credibility… generally.

But he recently made a statement that 1) seemed odd and 2) may have been based on a parody site! It also brought on the ire of Kevin Durant who defended Kyrie Irving against an attack.

For context, here’s what Polynice said during a recent appearance on The Odd Couple podcast, which is manned by Chris Broussard and Rob Parker.

“One of the reasons why there’s issues between he and Kyrie Irving is because of a statement he made during a party at Steve Nash’s house,” Polynice claimed. “Okay, in front of everybody, Kyrie said, ‘You need to give those MVP trophies back to Kobe. You didn’t deserve them.’”

Nash won his MVPs in 2005 and 2006. Bryant didn’t finish in the top 10 in 2005. He finished fourth in 2006.

Polynice did not say how he knew this details. He wouldn’t have attended a Nets team dinner. But Paolo Songco of Clutch Points pointed to the real possibility that Polynice was echoing a fake tweet! “It seems that Olden picked up this narrative from a two-month-old tweet of a parody/satire account named Ballsack Sports,” Songco wrote Tuesday.

The reason we are discussing this is because KD came to Irving’s defense in very strong terms on Sunday, calling Polynice’s comment a “generational lie.” He has his teammate’s back…

KD being KD, he did not let Polynice’s response pass without another tweet…

Irving is and will be the subject of a lot of rumors. He is a controversial player and person, but one thing we do know is that his good friend will come to his defense. A question, though: Does responding to a statement that on its face is at best literally fake news and at worst deliberately dishonest draw more attention to the original material? And is it worth it?