Bed Bugs

When Kyrie Irving missed most of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, the team said it due to a stomach bug.

The team told a half-truth. Irving had a bug, though. In fact, he had many of them.
“Our team said I was out with flu-like symptoms,” Irving noted after Cleveland’s 96-88 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday. “It was honestly from the bed bugs from the (not-nice word) Hilton that we stayed at.”

In a gruesome time of presidential politics, it was Irving’s room that was bugged.

Many NBA teams call the Stricklin Hilton in Oklahoma City their road headquarters. It is the city’s oldest hotel and is also often said to be haunted. So it sits somewhere between five diamonds and, well, Roach Motel.

“Just imagine how freaked out you’d be if you saw (not-nice word) five, big-ass bed bugs just sitting on your pillow. I woke up itching, and I’m just looking around, and I’m like, ‘Are you serious right now?’ It was 3 a.m., and I was so tired at that point. It was, whatever,” said Irving, who then slept on the couch and played only nine minutes against the Thunder.

The hotel acknowledged the problem and said it had brought in a professional company to debug the room. It is not known if Irving was offered extra Hilton points or a free night.

The Cavaliers, back in Cleveland and in their own beds, are home on Wednesday night against the Charlotte Hornets. Hornets? Ack, more insects! Eeeeeewww. Perhaps the team will give out fly swatters as a special promotion.

We have no qualms about saying that Irving is fairly itching to play.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman