"Kyrie Irving loves to pretend he's a martyr, and he's not" - Shannon Sharpe strongly condemns Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant for media day comments

On "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed," FS1's Shannon Sharpe criticized Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant for their September 26 media day comments. Sharpe said Irving was playing the victim card over his unvaccinated status. The analyst was livid with Durant for telling reporters he was invaluable to the franchise.

"Kyrie Irving loves to pretend like he’s a martyr, and he's not," Sharpe said. "And Sean Marks may say it wasn't an ultimatum. It's about wanting players that are reliable and accountable. No matter what you are dealing with, you just don't get to pick up and leave without telling someone, Kyrie."

Sharpe then got sarcastic about Irving turning down a vast amount of money over what he believed was a noble cause.

"You want to go, 'Oh, I turned down a 100 million?' No. They're [Brooklyn Nets] like, 'Man, we're not feeling like giving you no money.' When you just feel like you can just bow out anytime you want to and you don't tell anybody. 'Oh man, we're human beings. Because we play basketball, we don't have emotions and we don't have issues,'" Sharpe said.

"Yes, you have those issues. But you better tell your boss. I can't just not show up for work. ... I better tell somebody beforehand. ... I know what Kyrie is. That's Kyrie."

Shannon Sharpe lays into Kevin Durant after criticizing Kyrie Irving

After criticizing Kyrie Irving, Sharpe turned his attention to Kevin Durant. He started his attack by mocking Durant for calling himself "too great" to be traded by the Nets. Sharpe said:

"'I ain't surprised I didn't get traded. I am too valuable.' Why the hell you ask for a trade? Did you realize your value before or after you didn't get traded?"

Sharpe's criticism of Kevin Durant was the latter's failure to show leadership.

"KD, you are the culture," Sharpe said. "You might be the longest tenured player there. So how can they establish something that you don't want to be a part of? And Skip here's the thing, he said, 'I told the organization that I'm not going to be a bridge between them and Kyrie.'

"That's a part of leadership. ... That's what part of being a leader is KD. That's why you'll never ever get it. He thinks just because he's supremely talented, that's all it takes. That's why he has never won anaywhere else outside of a culture that was created in Golden State before he brought his a** there."