Kyrie Irving injured his ankle in the fourth quarter of the Brooklyn Nets’ game against the Portland Trailblazers on Monday, in what he called a “bad play.”
In the last few minutes of the game, Irving was going after a loose ball when Nassir Little ran up behind him and dove for the ball, injuring Irving. He remained on the floor after the play and was visibly clutching his ankle.
Irving addressed the incident during the postgame press conference. “Just one of those bad plays, you know. I tried to get out of the way, but I just thought that was just, it was unnecessary for him to dive that far away from the ball. I was just trying to get out of the way,” Irving said.
“I asked the ref, you know he’s got to protect players out there, just totally unnecessary, I get Nassir wants to go for the ball, but just a bad play, it’s all good,” Irving added. “I could’ve broke my ankle or done something worse. There’s just no place in our game for it. I get the intent from Nassir… but it could’ve been avoided.”
Little eventually responded to accusations that it was a dirty play on Twitter.
“I would never hurt someone on purpose, I have the utmost respect for Kyrie!” Little tweeted. “But y’all are delusional if you think this is a bad play, and id do it again. Idgaf what y’all talkin about.”
