Kyrie Irving has always been known as an elite shooter and scorer. But on Wednesday night, he had a rough go of it offensively in the Boston Celtics' win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Celtics points guard only had 11 points on five-of-14 shots. And while Irving has taken thousands and thousands of shots throughout is career, he's still a young player and could be prone to a poor shooting night anytime. He is human, after all.
But when asked after the game against the Cavs how he deals with shooting woes, Kyrie Irving had a rather measured answer, and seems to have figured out that any one shooing night is not a cause for overall concern, per Chris Forsberg of ESPN.
Article Continues Below“As a young player, I used to get stuck in one game and think that this was going to be the end all, be all. If I don't shoot well tonight, then I don't know if I'm going to make it until tomorrow, man,” he said. “And that's just how maniacal I am about the game. But now it's really about the big picture. As long as you can affect the game on the defensive end, offensive end, and put your team in a great position to win, that's the only thing that really matters. All the other stats and everything, you can try to make important — you can — but it'll deviate you. I've been there.”
In the past two seasons, it's seemed like the Celtics star has gone out of his way to make sure people know that he's an intellectual. But he rarely speaks that way about basketball issues.
Here, Kyrie Irving shows maturity as an NBA player by virtue of becoming a true veteran. He understands that there is always the next game to be better.