“The most important thing is how you communicate to your teammates to help you handle pressure”: When Kobe Bryant sounded off on what lesson Kyrie Irving’s failed 2019 playoffs should give him

Kyrie Irving is one of the few players in the league today who deserve comparisons with Kobe Bryant. Not only in skill, but also by mentality.

Kyrie Irving and Kobe Bryant have both been sidekicks to the most dominant players of their respective generations. Both still managed to carve out their own unique identities during those partnerships.

Kyrie Irving is often criticized for moving away from LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers. But Kobe Bryant was probably one of the few people who understood the position he was in. Kyrie felt marginalized in Cleveland, so he forged his own path.

Now Kyrie is far from the most reasonable person – his anti-vaccine stance has clearly demonstrated. But this is also a man in quest of personal excellence that stands the test of time. That’s where he found common ground with one of the GOATs in Kobe Bryant.

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Kyrie Irving incorporated a ton of Kobe’s offensive arsenal into his own skillset. The thing he truly needed to level up at was being able to play against stifling playoff defenses.

Kobe Bryant put Kyrie Irving through a whirlwind of basketball knowledge in the summer of 2019

The 2019 NBA playoffs were by far Kyrie’s worst postseason outings ever. He laid 4 straight duds in losses to the Milwaukee Bucks. And he attributed the blame for much of it to his teammates missing open shots.

Kyrie Irving joined Kobe Bryant at the latter’s Mamba Sports Academy in 2019 for a long session. According to Matt Sullivan in Can’t Knock the Hustle, Kobe helped Kyrie find solace with his playoff disappointments.

“The most important thing for you is not so much how you figure out how to handle the pressure. But how do you communicate to your teammates to help you handle the pressure?”

Nike is always big on talent design input, ESPECIALLY Kyrie. After Kobe’s death, Ky made Nike re-engineer to performance.

For my book (https://t.co/ZNyLbzFQGF), Kyrie designer recalled him saying: “the master has gone that route. I’m gonna take on that torch and carry that shit” https://t.co/q7CyGk4Xrk pic.twitter.com/TDlnVCw4xH

— Matt Sullivan (@sullduggery) July 28, 2021

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Kyrie may or may not have taken these words of wisdom to heart yet. But he’s certainly pondered about the depth of the knowledge Kobe gave him.