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Kyrie Irving takes a swipe at ESPN

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports
By Darryn Albert | Last updated Feb 16, 2026 8:54 PM ET

ESPN apparently falls a little bit flat for Kyrie Irving.

The Dallas Mavericks star point guard Irving, an ANTA signature athlete, appeared during NBA All-Star Weekend at an AntaLand event in Santa Monica, Calif. ANTA streamed the event live for fans, and during the livestream, Irving was caught taking a swipe at ESPN.

When a staff member approached Irving on the stage to inform him that ESPN was ready to do a walk-and-talk interview with him, Irving replied, “I don’t really care for ESPN.” Irving added though that he would still do the interview with the network.

Here is the video.

Kyrie Irving was told he was doing an interview with ESPN.

He just laughed and said he wanted nothing to do with them pic.twitter.com/e5ryYbGdqz
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) February 15, 2026

The nine-time All-Star Irving, 33, has not played for the Mavericks all season as he continues to recover from a torn left ACL. Irving is nearing the one-year anniversary of his injury but may not play at all this year with Dallas at a lethargic 19-35 on the season.

As for ESPN, there could be a number of reasons why Irving has beef with them. Irving has publicly called out ESPN over their player rankings in the past and has also had issues during his career with the media at large.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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