Kyrie Irving must quit basketball or accept media attention, says Stephen A. Smith from ESPN

says Stephen A. ESPN’s Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving needs to stop playing basketball or accept the fact that people are so drawn to his game and career.

The soon-to-be agent was recently seen at a Lakers-Nuggets playoff game in Los Angeles, sparking rumors that Irving could leave the Mavs in order to reunite with Lakerland’s LeBron James.

But upon hearing the rumors, Irving took to social media to ask the public not to draw any conclusions about his Lakers stadium seating.

“Stop mentioning me on Twitter,” Smith said on Instagram. “All of your fanbases y’all. Stop mentioning me now please. It’s still…the conference finals…can you please let me out of this.”

On Friday, Smith replied, “If you don’t want us to talk about you as a basketball player, quit, because we’ll talk about you.”

Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (R) needs to stop playing basketball or accept the fact that people are so down on his game and career, says Stephen A. ESPN’s Smith (left).

As Smith points out, discussions about Irving’s future are not disrespectful, and should be expected for anyone in the All-Star eight-time position.

“With respect, to Kyrie Irving, who doesn’t want us to talk about it, don’t play basketball,” said Smith. Talking about basketball. Nobody talks about his personal life. No one has been talking about his tweets for months. Nobody talks about all the things he’s been involved in, or headlines, or anything. Kyrie Irving is a good guy and smarter than people give him credit for all those other things.

“But I think it’s absolutely ridiculous for him to say to people, ‘They don’t know, don’t listen to them,'” Smith continued.

Well, why don’t they listen to us? We’re just talking about basketball. We predict where you might go. Nobody says they know, or anything like that.

Sitting in the front row, Irving was hard to miss at the Lakers-Nuggets game

Smith, who previously admitted to having a personal problem with Irving, didn’t stop there.

“Kyrie Irving seems offended that we say 1 + 1 = 2,” Smith continued. “It’s not disrespectful to talk about you, Kyrie Irving, the super talent of basketball. It’s not disrespectful to talk about your playing basketball. That’s all anyone was talking about: Where could Kyrie go?”

Is this a crime now? Let’s go brother.

“He’s the only one who seems to take offense to that,” Smith concluded. ‘That does not make sense.’

And when Smith suggested Irving should quit if he didn’t want to be succumbed to NBA rumors, Mike Greenberg co-presented another idea.

“Or don’t sit in the most obvious seat in the game,” Greenberg said of Irving and his seat on the court.

As Smith quickly points out, Irving likely wasn’t a paying customer that night. Instead, he likely received the tickets from the Lakers, which has only fueled speculation that he might be coming to Los Angeles next season.

“You can’t get those tickets yourself,” said Smith. You get it because the Lakers make it easy for you to get those tickets. It’s no accident.

Kyrie Irving shares a hug with Timberwolves minority owner Alex Rodriguez on May 22

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Irving said he’s in no rush to announce his future, but it’s hard to envision him re-signing with Dallas after the Mavs struggled following his acquisition of the Brooklyn Nets at the trade deadline.

The 31-year-old becomes a free agent in July, when he’ll be eligible for a five-year, $272 million deal with the Mavericks, under the Larry Bird clause, or up to a four-year, $202 million deal with another team.

the athlete reports that the Mavericks are unlikely to facilitate the signing and trade of Irving, limiting his options in free agency.

If the Mavericks transfer Irving in a signing-and-trade deal, his new team will retain the rights to Larry Bird, thus qualifying him for a five-year, $272 million offer. Furthermore, a signing-and-trade deal could allow Irving to join a team that is already over the salary cap, like the Lakers.