Kyrie Irving says he didn’t play basketball to ‘be famous,’ so everyone reminds him he made ‘Uncle Drew’

The Kyrie Irving is Fed Up With Everything Tour continued this week when  the embattled Boston Celtics star once again talked about how tough it is to be famous while playing in the NBA.

It’s been a theme of his throughout the 2018-19 season, with all the questions he’s asked about free agency. We heard it last month when a conversation hed had with Kevin Durant at the All-Star Game in a hallway was broadcast to the world and a reporter asked if “folks … trying to dissect kind of a private conversation” bothers him.

Here are his latest thoughts on life in the spotlight:

Kyrie: "I didn’t really come into this game for there to be cameras in my face, be famous, be a celebrity, so it’s a little hard for me. I wanted those things when I was younger but at this point in my career, I just want to play basketball at a very, very high level.” #Celtics

— gary washburn (@GwashburnGlobe) March 4, 2019

There’s one problem with that, and people on Twitter pounced on it right away: Why did he make Uncle Drew then? Shouldn’t he be more like Kawhi Leonard?

…. buy Uncle Drew on Blu-Ray tho

— C_OB (@NotFakeC_OB) March 5, 2019

Uncle Drew was on HBO this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/Qb0s8fUoun

— Jonathan Zaslow (@ZaslowShow) March 5, 2019

As recently as a year ago, Kyrie was promoting Uncle Drew and talking about how he wanted to start his own TV network. 2 months ago, it was announced that Irving would star in a movie about the Skirvin Hotel. https://t.co/zl4Kou85jL

— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 4, 2019

Sure thing Uncle Drew 🙄 pic.twitter.com/m1WmTgHXeQ

— Benny (@BennyTheJet2017) March 4, 2019

Uh, he filmed a movie like a year ago. #UncleDrew https://t.co/02N6UOycuO

— John Flanders (@jflanders) March 5, 2019

I think the point here is that Irving probably didn’t mean it that way. He keeps coming back to the same point: All the attention on him and his upcoming decision is wearing on him. And as we’ve said with him and Durant, this is what comes with the territory with free agency, especially in an NBA when superstars talk to each other about teaming up.