Kenny Atkinson calls Kyrie Irving ‘mood swings' report ‘completely false'

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Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson came to Kyrie Irving's defense on Tuesday after a report surfaced stating the point guard's "mood swings" were an "unspoken concern" in Brooklyn.

According to the report, noted in a column written by ESPN's Jackie MacMullan, Irving is "often unwilling to communicate with the coaching staff, front office and sometimes, even his teammates" and one particular episode occurred during the Nets' trip to China.

Atkinson says those claims couldn't be further from the truth.

"That is completely false, strictly speaking of my observations, my experience with him so far," Atkinson told reporters. "It's absolutely not true. I'm the moody one. I really am. I'm cranky and I have my ups and downs so if there's just natural human behavior where guys are up and down that's different. But from my perspective, I just give Kyrie an A+ on his consistency and his spirit. It's been great."

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Regardless of how concerning Kyrie's behavior has been thus far, it's certainly alarming for these kinds of reports to be out there only three games into the new season. Celtics fans have already seen this same story unfold before their very eyes.

As for on the court, Irving has been... well, he's been Kyrie Irving. The ex-C's star dropped 50 points in his Nets debut, then put up 26 and 37 in his next two games. But if these off-the-court storylines continue to be a distraction, we could be looking at a similar situation in Brooklyn as to what we all witnessed during Irving's disappointing tenure in Boston.

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