Kyrie Irving wants the masses to understand basketball better.
The Boston Celtics point guard told reporters Wednesday he appreciates Kobe Bryant’s breakdown of his his game on this week’s episode of ESPN’s “Details.” Bryant trained his eyes on Irving’s play during the Celtics’ win over the Indiana Pacers last Friday in Game 3 of their first-round NBA playoff series.
Irving accepts Bryant’s mixture of praise and criticism and respects “Details” as a valuable educational tool for fans.
“I think it’s a very unique observation because of how special he is as a human being, first and foremost, and then as a basketball player,” Irving said, per MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm. “He’s been on the highest of stages, asked to do a lot. So he understands what it takes for spacing, possession-by-possession games, little things in order to be more efficient out there with his movements. So I was just truly appreciative that he gave that to not only myself but to the fans.
“Not a lot of people see the game like that. Most people study analytics or just dive too much into the game of basketball. Not many people can understand the language of it when high-level basketball players speak it. And I think that he did a great job to try to make it as fundamental as possible.”
Bryant doesn’t discuss Irving and the Celtics as a mere casual observer. He has forged special relationships with Irving and Celtics forward Jayson Tatum in recent months and years, so he’s well-positioned to highlight the finer points of their games to a wider audience. And we probably are better off for it.
