In his eight seasons in the NBA, Kyrie Irving has proven to be one of the craftiest guards in basketball and perhaps the league’s premier clutch performer. Irving is a lethal offensive juggernaut and is capable of heating up and putting teams away in a hurry once he catches fire.
However, Irving thinks his abilities go beyond the physical limitations of basketball. Though Irving is sometimes averse to media involvement, he says he doesn’t mind talking basketball and is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to the sport he loves, even calling himself a basketball “genius.”
“I felt by being so invested in basketball, it did me a disservice because it made me pay attention to the wrong things,” Irving told ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan. “Like people’s opinions, and things going with other people on that don’t have anything to do with me.”
“Everyone falls prey to it. The rankings, the top players, the trade rumors, all the fake basketball analysts, and coaches that know everything,” Irving says. “I’m not going to let anyone else dictate my happiness… I’ve been playing basketball a lot longer than some of these people analyzing the game. I’m an actual genius when it comes to this game.”
“If you ask me about basketball, I will talk all day. If you ask me about spacing at the 3:33 mark of the second quarter, I will gladly explain it. I’ll tell you what plays worked, about adjustments we make. But when it comes to personal things, or comparing myself to my NBA brothers, like, ‘Do you think you are better than this guy?’ I’m out.”
Though being a superstar in the NBA comes with its share of negatives, including being subject to constant scrutiny, it seems Kyrie Irving is learning to not worry about the wrong things. Irving has often been one of the more even-keeled superstars but he can also be unpredictable at times.
When it comes to his basketball knowledge though, no one can dispute how sharp Kyrie Irving is. Still, on the cusp of his NBA prime, Irving already possesses an incredible knack for countering some of the NBA’s best defenses and has shown up on the league’s biggest stage. Hopefully for Irving and his Celtics, this confidence translates into a deep playoff push with the first round now in the books.
