Jackie MacMullan once told Kyrie Irving basketball players are ‘property’ to NBA owners

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving is in hot water due to his mysterious absence from the squad.

While talking about the Irving situation, decorated NBA reporter Jackie MacMullan created some controversy of her own when she admitted to referring to NBA players as “property” while speaking with the confounding star guard.

“Well so I will tell you this,” she began. “I was thinking about all the conversations I’ve had with Kyrie through the years. One of them I had, I don’t know, two years ago, we got into an argument about, you know, something, and he’s like, ‘Well there shouldn’t be an NBA draft. Players should be able to go wherever they want to go. We’re not someone’s property.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah you are dude, that’s the way it works. That’s why you get paid all these millions.’

 

“So, I really think in Kyrie’s mind, he, I think the effects of the Capitol, I think the effects of the Jacob Blake shooting. Those things affected him. They bothered him. He felt like we are not putting importance where it belongs. These things are more important. I really believe that.”

Given the nature of the conversation, it is surprising to see that MacMullan did not choose her words more precisely when telling the story.

As for Irving, he has not suited up for a game with the Nets since a win on Jan. 5. He has been inactive for the team’s last five games.

Now that fellow superstar James Harden has been brought to Brooklyn via trade, it will be interesting to see how Irving’s current situation plays out.

It will also be interesting to see how NBA fans across the league react to MacMullan’s sentiment regarding player rights within the league.