Kyrie Irving continues to be the topic of conversation, if he likes it or not.
When Irving’s on the court, he’s everything you read and hear about from sports writers and tv analysts.
However, it’s not his moves on the court lately which has everyone talking. Irving’s time away, for personal reasons, led many of us to speculate on what’s going on with him.
His time away from the Nets has been the topic of discussion in just about every sports chat room.
Well, here’s my take…
Look, here’s the thing… it’s his life. How he chooses to protect his mental health is his call, as it should be.
However, he also has a job to do, and part of that includes dealing with criticism. Irving, at 28 years old and nine years of professional experience, knows this much.
And while watching his return press conference, there were two observations that stuck for me. One was regarding speculation on his state of mind while he was away. It opened my eyes and I hope it did the same for his critics.
“The thing that’s pretty interesting in watching when you take a break from everything is there’s so many assumptions about what’s going on,” Irving said. “And so many people who feel that they know me best, and they have no idea who I am.”
He’s right. Most of us are on the outside, looking in, we’re speculating. We’ll watch video of Irving’s press conference; we’ll make our assessments on how he looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else at that moment instead of there – answering questions.
The fact of the matter is only Kyrie Irving, and the people he’s decided to speak with, truly know what’s going on with Kyrie Irving. And we’ve all been there. As human beings, we’ve all been there.
That doesn’t, however, take away from owning up to our responsibilities and showing self-awareness. Irving did that during his press conference and that also shouldn’t go overlooked.
My other observation was Irving speaking on the importance of having balance in one’s life. The good that Irving does, and there’s plenty of it, deserves more attention. But it’s not what he does, it’s how he goes about it.
In life, we all reach a point where we must accept certain realities of this world. We must make peace with those realities in order to move forward in our lives. Finding that balance is a process.
Irving said he understood the frustration of fans while he was away from the team. Let’s hope his critics, myself included, leave room to understand his frustrations.
