Kyrie Irving rebukes effects of sports betting

Dallas Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving delivered a scathing indictment of sports betting during a Twitch stream early Thursday morning.

being a diehard fan and supporting your team”

“Gambling and sports betting has completely taken the purity and the fun away from the game at times,” said Irving. “There’s a difference between being a diehard fan and supporting your team and loving your team versus somebody that’s betting on a parlay or somebody that wants to hit.”

Sports betting has taken off in the US ever since a 2018 Supreme Court decision allowed it to be legalized on a state-by-state basis. As such, athletes at the professional and collegiate levels have been dealing with extra pressure to perform and are often blamed for costing gamblers their money when they don’t.

Irving was traded to the Mavericks, who play in Texas, a state with no legal sports betting market, on February 6, but before that, he was a member of the Nets in Brooklyn, New York, which had sports betting in operation for roughly one year when he was dealt. That one year just so happened to be the most successful for any pro-gambling state not named Nevada.

Irving also addressed several other issues during his stream, including his poor representation by the media, Ja Morant’s situation, and what he would have done if he never became an NBA player.