Kyrie Irving continues to confound his contemporaries and stupefy his fans with his devastating dribbling and shot-making exhibitions. But this basketball savant wowed them all with his latest move, this time off the hardwood.
The Brooklyn Nets superstar point guard hired his stepmom to be his agent, making her the first Black woman to ever hold such a position in the league’s 75-year history.
Shetellia Riley Irving is replacing Roc Nation and Jeff Wechsler as Irving’s representative, according to Black Enterprise. Riley Irving married Irving’s father, Drederick Irving, in 2004.
Riley Irving is a formidable and experienced businesswoman. She spent the last four years serving as vice president of ad sales for BET. There’s no word on whether she will continue in that capacity. But Riley Irving is filling the void when Irving fired Roc Nation back in July 2021.
Whatever wonders Riley Irving performed in the corporate boardroom, she doesn’t have the power to invalidate the city ordinance in New York that still prohibits unvaccinated residents from entering public facilities, including Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
Without Irving’s services at home, coupled with megastar Kevin Durant’s injury, the Nets have gone 5-17 in their last 22 games to fall to .500 with a 32-32 record. They have slipped precipitously to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference with just 17 games remaining.
Even with both Kyrie and Durant in the lineup in Boston on Sunday, March 6, 2022, the Nets were defeated by the Celtics behind Jason Tatum’s dazzling 54-point performance.
