NBL great Steve Carfino has blasted Nick Kyrgios for showing a “lack of sportsmanship” and acting like a “jerk” during the Sydney Kings Starlight celebrity game on the weekend.
Kyrgios, an avid NBA fan, was accused of taking things too far in the exhibition game, landing a huge block on NSW premier Dominic Perrottet while trying to reject a shot from Miss Universe Australia 2020 Maria Thattil.
Carfino, who was coaching the opposing team, took aim at Kyrgios for his behaviour, describing his conduct as “ridiculous”.
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“What a jerk. Oh my goodness,” he told Fox Sports.
“And what a lack of sportsmanship. He’s blocking girls’ shots, he’s not passing to his teammates.
“This is a celebrity game. There’s be funds to be raised for the Starlight Foundation. It was ridiculous.”
Carfino said Kyrgios went too “hard” and should have played in the spirit of the game.
“I just thought it was unsportsmanlike, you know? It wasn’t the right moment to show how dominant you can be against, you know, Australia’s contestant for Miss World,” he said.
“He’s trying to block her shot. He’s going hard, blocking the shot of the premier, you know, didn’t come out, refused to come out of the game.
“We had 18 players and we got everybody in. I think it was you know, for the betterment of the game. You know, that was the right thing to do.
“It was a celebrity game. Know where you’re at.”
When asked why Kyrgios behaved in such a manner, Carfino said: “I guess white line fever. And his coach was Shane Heal, he suffers from it as well.
“Shane actually said to Nick, he was like ‘Come over here – Carfino doesn’t think you can get 20’. And he (Kyrgios) looked at me like he was ready to kill me.”
It didn’t take long for Kyrgios to fire back at Carfino’s comments, with the tennis player calling the commentator a “potato” on social media.
“Lack of respect? You potato, have a look at my foundation (the NK Foundation) and look me in my eyes and tell me what lack of respect there is for that?” Kyrgios wrote.
“Maybe if you showed less sportsmanship your NBA career would of (sic) lasted longer (laugh emoji).”
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