Joe Harris: Media narrative on Kyrie Irving is flawed ... he’s a ‘great teammate’

In an interview with Tiki Barber and Brandon Tierney of CBS Sports, Joe Harris reiterated what a number of Nets players have said about Kyrie Irving: the narrative is wrong. Irving is “a great dude, great teammate, and he comes in and competes and works hard every day. That’s all you expect out of your teammates.”

The interview touched on other subjects but once again, the focus was on Irving and Kevin Durant, both of whom Harris said, “come in and they bust their tail every day,”

When the hosts contended that Irving had seemingly forced his way out of Cleveland, seemingly forced his way out of Boston — and received criticism from former players, Harris disputed that his backcourt mate is a bad guy.

“I think a lot of times a lot of things that he’s done has just sort of been taken out of context a little bit,” said Harris. “Behind closed doors, he really is a real consistent guy. He comes in, he busts his tail every day, he competes every day in practice.

“Like all of us, it’s not like we’re all hitting on all cylinders every single day. There’s some days where he might be a little off here and there, but at the end of the day, he’s a great dude, great teammate, and he comes in and competes and works hard every day. That’s all you expect out of your teammates.”

Harris also disputed the suggestion that Irving is “high maintenance.”

“He’s a great dude. He’s a great teammate. You know what to expect from him,” Harris said of Irving. “When he comes in every day, he’s going to bust his tail, do his job. I wouldn’t even say he’s a high-maintenance guy by any means.

“To be honest, I don’t pay a lot of attention to a lot of the extra stuff and some of the things that are going on in the media, especially when it pertain to him and some of the other guys on the team. But I do know that some of the stuff that I have caught wind of, I think it is taken out of context because I don’t see that. I see what I see every day with him coming in, being professional, just working.”

Regarding the work habits of Irving and Durant, Harris left no doubt.

“At the end of the day, him and Kevin are identical in the sense where these guys are established superstars, but they come in and they bust their tail every day,” Harris said. “These guys are two of the hardest-working guys we have on our team, and that’s what you want from all of your teammates. I think some of the other stuff, people like to latch onto that and blow it up a little bit more than it really is.”

• Joe Harris: Kyrie Irving is a great teammate, gets ‘taken out of context’ - Tiki & Tierney - The Ticket