Like anything else, the NBA is cyclical. As stars rise and hit their primes, young players are entering the league already that will supplant them in the coming years. The nature of the game is such that young players are always gunning to get to the top while the old guard uses their wiles, veteran savvy, and ability to keep dominating for as long as they can.
The NBA is going through one of those changes right now. The young stars of the league are among the frontrunners for MVP. Giannis Antetokounmpo might be in his prime, but the likes of Jayson Tatum, Luka Doncic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are all 24 and under. These guys are in MVP conversations this season, meaning that they are already challenging the old guard. LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving, to name a few, are all on the other side of 30, and the NBA is changing.
Kyrie Irving On How The League Has Changed: “The Game Is Becoming A Lot Younger”
With players now coming into the league as extremely polished athletes, the age for superstardom is younger than ever. Victor Wembanyama isn’t even here yet, and people like Ja Morant and Zion Williamson are already freak athletes that are hard to compete with. Kyrie Irving addressed this phenomenon when talking about how the NBA has changed recently.
“Young guys are coming at us older guys every single night… The game is becoming a lot younger, more athletic. Guys are getting to the three-point line, and us as quote-unquote ‘guys with 10-plus years in this league,’ we’ve got to keep up and make sure we’re playing our style of basketball, which is everyone’s touching it and everyone has the ability to score or to be aggressive.”
On the court, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and the like are all as good as any of the youngsters still. But the way that skills are focused on at a young age now, younger players that grew up with the best facilities and insights have both skill and athleticism.
The MVP race is a good marker for this; a majority of the candidates are young players. The value of good veterans cannot be understated, but they do have to keep up moving forward. If Kyrie Irving can stay focused on basketball for the rest of the season, maybe he can go back to establishing some of the old guard’s dominance once again.
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