Kyrie Irving says he relishes the pressure to be the main man for Brooklyn in the absence of Kevin Durant.
Kevin Durant is out injured for the next 4 – 6 weeks, robbing the Nets of one of their star performers. Kyrie Irving, who has only recently returned to the court, has to step up.
Kyrie Irving scored 30 points in 38 minutes in the one point win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.
“I like the pressure,” Irving said.
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“I love pressure. It brings out the best in me personally. And then also I’m able to carry that energy with the team whether it be communicating with guys in short conversations on the floor or off the floor.
“Just trying to demand a responsibility from all of us, from myself first, but from all of us, that this isn’t going to be perfect. It’s not going to ever look perfect. This is just what we have, and we can’t replace anybody that’s out. But what we can do is fill up the stat sheet with the little things that may show up and things that may not show up. We’ll see where we are at the end of the game when we leave it all out there playing hard.
“It feels incredible,” Irving said. “I don’t take one day for granted. I thank God every day I get this opportunity, not only to play basketball, but just to be around great individuals, and we grow together just in this space and then when we leave here from this arena we are all away from our families, we’re on the road, and we have a mission that we’re all trying to be in front of mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally and just stay even-keeled.”
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“I know it’s difficult at times, not only for just me, but for everyone else, just the monotony coming in every single day working on [our games], but this is what we signed up for when we were playing in fifth grade, fourth grade, this was the dream right here. Just getting on the road and trying to win some ballgames and play at a high level.”
