INSIDE KYRIE’S RETURN
Irving had to shake off nerves and rust in first game back for Nets
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyrie Irving is so locked in, he’s zoned out his teammate. It’s pregame warmups ahead of Irving’s first game of the season after the Nets ruled him eligible for road games, and James Johnson chirped in his direction. Maybe it’s a joke. Maybe it’s an ice-breaker. But nothing is breaking Irving’s focus.
He’s wrapping up his first warmup ahead of the Pacers game and after nailing a flurry of crossover-combination and spotup jump shots, Irving goes perfect from the foul line.
Then he wraps his pregame warmup with a two-handed dunk before sprinting off the floor. Just like old times.
Yet on the inside, this is far from routine. Irving is nervous. He’s had many debuts in his life — his debut at St. Patrick’s High School (now The Patrick School), his first game at Duke, and each of his first games in Cleveland, Boston and Brooklyn — but this one is different.
This is his first game back since his decision to not get vaccinated against COVID-19 left his teammates handicapped at home due to New York City’s vaccine mandate, even if to start the season the Nets exiled him in the name of continuity.
“It’s a lot of gratitude just to be present tonight with everyone and just go out there and have fun doing what we love to do,” he says. “With me joining right now, I feel like I have a voice to say things, but really, it’s just an add-on to what (head coach Steve Nash) has been saying, to what our leadership has been saying on the team.”
Now it’s tip-off, and Irving’s nerves are getting the best of him. Nash drew up the game’s first play for his debuting point guard — what he called “a welcome-back gift” — and the ball works its way from James Harden to Nic Claxton, into a dribble hand-off to Irving, who takes his man off the dribble, gets to his sweet spot at the foul line and fades for a mid-range jump shot.
As Irving fades right, however, his shot fades left and grazes the rim before falling into an opponent’s hands. He tries again shortly after, spinning around a Pacers defender for a layup at the rim — a layup Indiana’s shot-blocker Myles Turner pins to the backboard, starting a transition opportunity.
“I went in with just an open mindset, just to ground myself, be present and do whatever it takes to win,” Irving explains. “In the first possession when I shot that shot, I was so caught up in just making my first two points, I was so nervous. Naturally, as a performer, I still get nervous. But that first shot, I wanted that to go in.”
The nerves, however, are now starting to subside. It’s the second quarter, and the seven-time All-Star nails a pull-up mid-range jump shot. Now the floodgates are open: He scored three more baskets in the period, even though his team is faltering against a Pacers team short eight rotation players. It didn’t look like it at first: The Nets had fallen behind as many as 19 to the Pacers, and Lance Stephenson’s homecoming stole the show with 20 straight points in the opening quarter. But Irving’s presence, Kevin Durant says, gave his team a lift. “It was amazing to have him out there,” Durant explains. “I just missed his presence around the locker room, his energy, his vibe around the team. and then on top of (that), his game is just so beautiful. He makes the game easier for everybody out there. It was amazing to see him out on the floor again.”
But Irving’s not done. Eight second-quarter points are not enough, certainly not in the face of Stephenson’s guitar-playing charade.
Irving scores 13 of the Nets’ final 46 points to help power them to a come-frombehind 129-121 victory. The biggest of shots comes at the end of the third quarter:
He dribbles from the three-point line into the mid-range and hits a buzzer-beating shot that makes it just a seven-point game entering the fourth quarter.
Then he flexes both his arms in the direction of his teammates — as if to say he’s back, almost like he never left.
In truth, Irving didn’t leave. The COVID-19 pandemic coupled with his personal beliefs forced him off the court at the beginning of the season.
But even if it’s just on a part-time basis only for road games, the Nets’ third superstar is back and working his way back into form.
That remains less than ideal. The Nets want all their stars for all their games, and Irving, who remains noncommittal to getting vaccinated, is only available for half of them. Half of those games could be enough to deliver the Nets their first championship in franchise history. All of those games make Brooklyn the clear-cut favorites.
“It’s going to take some time, just because we have to get used to him being on the road and not at home, things like that,” said Harden. “But we’ve been a resilient group all year and (we’ll) eventually figure it out. Hopefully he’s able to play every single game. Home games and away games. But until then we’ll figure it out, we’ll keep pushing and find ways to come up with wins.”