Stephen A. Smith Wants Kyrie Irving To Retire TODAY

"He acts like he can't chew gum and walk at the same time." - Stephen A. Smith and today the A stands for ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. 

There's a lot of guys around the NBA right now using their platform to speak about whatever they deem important. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum stood arm in arm after the Celtics last game to talk about the attempted coup on the Capitol. D'Angelo Russell flipped it around and asked each and every Timberwolves beat reporter how they felt about everything happening in our country right now. James Harden wants nothing to do with playing for the Houston Rockets and even he keeps showing up to work. If Kyrie's intent is to draw attention to certain issues it very clearly isn't working. His means is making the headlines, not his ends. Mostly because his ends, in this very moment, are largely unclear. I don't have any confusion where Jaylen Brown or LeBron James stand right now. 

Stephen A. is calling for the softest retirement ever. "Retire until you're ready to hoop." Which, uhh, appears to be what's already happening. Kyrie isn't playing, the Nets don't know precisely why, and when he's he'll be back out there. Will it be for the Brooklyn Nets? It... hard to say. I don't think a Kyrie-John Wall backcourt makes much sense, but if Durant says the word the Nets will throw the kitchen sink at Harden and get this thing they've built back on course. Maybe Kyrie goes elsewhere and a third team offers its assets to acquire a guy who doesn't want to play basketball all the time. That feels like a guy teams are chomping at the bit to acquire.