Kyrie Irving is striking a mature tone about his role on the Brooklyn Nets as their much-anticipated 2020-21 season gets underway.
Irving said after Tuesday’s season-opening win over Golden State that he had to learn not to play “hero basketball,” but now understands that achieving team success goes hand-in-hand with personal success.
“It’s been a long journey to get here and to be able to master this craft and to learn that it’s not just about hero basketball, it’s about how great the team is,” Irving said, via Ian Begley of SNY. “I think I got caught up in that in my career a few times in just trying to play hero basketball. Where the team success is really going to dictate how great you are as an individual and how great you play your role. Being here in this present moment, I’m enjoying that and I’m embracing that.”
Irving added that his priorities have shifted from scoring the most points and earning individual accolades, which he admitted he prioritized earlier in his career.
“As a young player, you think that scoring a bunch of points, doing a bunch of things, getting individual accolades is great. And I definitely was going after those things,” Irving said. “Now I really don’t care for any of those individual accolades or goals. It really doesn’t bother me. I know I’m validated culturally and that’s all that matters. I don’t need an All-NBA. I don’t need a MVP, I just want a championship with a great team that I can look back on history and say we did it our way and we had fun doing it.”
This is a hugely encouraging perspective if you’re a Nets fan. Irving buying into a team mentality and being willing to sacrifice statistically for the betterment of his teammates is precisely what you’d want out of a leader. That’s especially true given this wasn’t necessarily the case in his most recent stop. The key will be maintaining this mentality. If Irving can do that, the Nets are in great shape.
