"I'm An Actual Genius When It Comes To This Game" - Kyrie Irving, Noted Truth Teller

(ESPN) – Irving cautioned it’s a mistake to put too much stock in one win or one loss. For some, NBA happiness will always be day-to-day, depending on the box score stats and the bank account dollar signs and the team’s place in the NBA standings and the court of public opinion.

“I’ve been playing basketball a lot longer than some of these people analyzing the game,” Irving says. “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.”

The god Jackie MacMullan filed this piece to ESPN this afternoon, and it was fantastic top to bottom. Lot of gems about how this team struggled to come together this season and how guys came together. And now this quote Kyrie gave about Kyrie is starting to make the rounds.

Most folks aren’t huge fans of self-adulation, but where’s the lie? Would it have been better to have this quote come out after Game 1’s performance rather than a dreadful Game 2? Undoubtedly. But that sort of plays into the point of the piece. The NBA is such a reactionary league – every day it’s made out to feel like the last day. You win and have a great game? You’re on top of the world? You lose and shoot poorly or have a bad turnover? You stink and your life is over and worthless.

But for this quote – I think it speaks more to what he’s wanted to talk about all season. His upcoming free agency became a joke, one that he certainly played into, but it was absurd how often that was a major storyline every single day of the week for 82 games. Ditto for Kevin Durant, who has long been described as “difficult” with the media. I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that both guys have opened up and given “better” quotes during the playoffs once the questions shifted to, yanno, basketball.

As for the “genius” part of it… Well, spot the lie. Kyrie is a goddamn basketball genius. The tightest handles I’ve ever seen. One of the best one-on-one players of any generation. He’s had to have logged his 10,000 hours by now, so I’m forced to agree. Kyrie Irving: Basketball genius.