It Took Kyrie Irving Exactly One $25,000 Fine to Decide Talking to the Media Was Worth His Time After All

Remember ... *checks notes* ... three days ago when Kyrie Irving called the media "pawns" and said whatever he'd be fined for refusing to honor his contract and talk to the media was worth it because his attention was worth more? Well that was apparently not true, because it only took one $25,000 fine from the NBA and he was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as any player you've ever seen to speak with the media today.

And of course in an effort to make amends with the media members he's going to have to talk to for the rest of the year, he clarified that the "pawns" comment was supposedly not about the media, but rather having "no distractions" in his life.

TMZ — Most interpreted the comment as a shot at journalists -- but when he was asked about it on Monday, Irving explained how he meant to say he's trying to eliminate everything in his life that could be considered a distraction from basketball.

"The focus is what's going on here, my job." Irving said. "And I wanted to make sure that was clear -- no distractions, nothing about dispelling anything, nothing about going back-and-forth, nothing about calling out one person or another."

"Not even referring to you guys as pawns or media. It's just really how I felt about the mistreatment of certain artists when we get to a certain platform of when we make decisions within of lives to have full control and ownership."

Yeah ok, pal. You just happened to say, "I don't talk to pawns," after being fined for not talking to these people. We can read what you said, chief.

I'm just disappointed Kyrie admitted he's poor. It would have actually been a pretty big dick move to go the whole season racking up millions in fines for refusing to talk to the media and saying your time is worth more than that. But all it took was one fine and all of a sudden Kyrie's time was worth a little bit less than he thought it was.

This Nets team feels like it's one fantastic conflagration waiting to happen and I, for one, cannot wait to see it.