Kyrie Irving of Boston Celtics hopes to finish his NBA career in his early 30s. He wants to be retired by mid-30 at the latest and not, like Vince Carter for example, stay in the league longer as a role player.
Friday night (1:30 a.m.) the Celtics will meet the Atlanta Hawks with veteran Carter, the 41-year-old is currently the oldest player in the NBA. When asked whether Kyrie believes he can stay in the league for so long, the Point Guard answered with a smile.
“No, no, when I’m done with this, hopefully in my early or mid-30s, then I’m done too,” said the 26-year-old. Air Canada scored its 25,000th NBA point against the Toronto Raptors (108:124) only on Wednesday, Kyrie also recently broke the 10,000 mark.
The Celtics star did not justify his statement by saying that he would not want to play basketball again later, but that life as an NBA player was very stressful. “I love basketball, but everything that comes your way,” the guard asked rhetorically.
“Being an NBA player is a dream I had when I was a kid. I don’t think everything else that goes with it has the same position as before.”
Kyrie added that other people would have to put themselves in his shoes to appreciate the amount of work and effort NBA players put in to do their job.
“I wish there were sometimes a little more empathy about what we have to do every day. How we put our bodies in danger, what mental stress we’re under, trying to be super every day and play basketball better than the day before.”