Kyrie Irving, the Well-Rested Superstar

'Thank you very much.  I'm now off to play some flag football
against my non-professional athlete homeys.' -Kyrie

About a week ago, Kyrie "Fievel" Irving dropped 60 points in a game against the ever-lowly Magic, and all types of dickridin took place afterwards.  This even included NBC Sports postulating whether he's "the most skilled NBA player ever" (a distinction I would rather give to Kobe, but that's a discussion for another day).

Meanwhile, Karl Anthony-Towns accomplished the same feat the night prior against the Spurs, another team that really isn't that good but is still more respectable than the Magic.  And personally, I consider KAT's 60 points to be more notable than Kyrie's.  Why?  Because Kyrie Irving is better rested than any other NBAer who is actually playing at the moment.

This then brings up the age-old debate of which is more preferable, rest or practice?  Every year during the Playoffs, you have one team sweep another, while whoever they're going to face in the next round is locked into a longer, more-competitive series.  So then people start asking what's preferable, having days of to rest or constantly plying your craft?  The old adage, "practice makes perfect", would support the latter theory.  But natural law itself dictates that rest is a good thing, especially if you make your bread engaged in a profession as physically strenuous as the NBA.

Oddly enough, none other than Allen Iverson already answered this question, in his own special way, decades ago.  AI wasn't the most coachable player, and the pinnacle of his hard-headnesses was on display in what has gone down in history as "the practice rant".

Even though the Answer didn't actually diss the importance of practice, that's how his words were interpreted anyway.  But even if you do decide to take what he said like that, there's something very important you have to remember about Allen Iverson.  From the moment he stepped on the court as a rookie, he was already the best scoring PG in the NBA.  And that is not an ability he got from practicing.  In other words, he did not need to practice as much as some of the other dudes.

Would practicing make him a better player overall?  Of course it would, so long as he didn't overextend himself.  But it isn't like he's one of those players who has to go to the D-league and shoot a thousand free throws and all types of other shit before becoming a starter.  Allen Iverson wasn't Eric Snow or Aaron McKie or those other dudes he played with, no disrespect to them.  He didn't become one of the best basketball players in the world through practice.  Rather, he was born with it.

So if Kyrie Irving is in fact the most skilled player in the NBA, logic would dictate that the more rest he gets the better.  Why?  Because he's already more talented than 99.9% of the other players, so constantly being on the court isn't as beneficial to him as it would be to them.  That is to say that he is in the enviable position of being able to prioritize general health over actually playing basketball.

CONCLUSION

When this season began, I didn't believe that the Nets were contenders.  But with this current roster, I do.  Yet that said, if the Nets do make it out of the East please, let's not contribute it all to their talent, even if they do have one of the most-gifted rosters.

If they do make a long playoff run and Irving is healthy throughout, that would likely be due to the fact that he rested most of this season (remember what happened during last year's Playoffs).  And if Ben Simmons also suits up, which I believe he will, then the Nets will basically have two all-stars who rested all the way up until the playoffs.  Some people will say 'oh, Ben Simmons is rusty' - but he will be rested.  And in a way that may not be fair to the other teams who will likely be facing them with hobbled stars.