During Friday morning’s shootaround, Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving told reporters that he hopes to retire from basketball in his early-to-mid-30s, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps:
“Once I’m done with this, hopefully in my early-to-mid-30s, I’m done with this.”
…He said his rationale behind wanting to be done with his career far sooner than [Vince] Carter is not because of a lack of desire to play basketball for that long, but because of all that comes with life as an NBA star away from the court.
“I love basketball itself,” Irving said. “But everything that comes with it? It doesn’t really matter to me, in terms of my life. I enjoy the game, I enjoy being with my teammates, playing every single day. Being an NBA player, this is a dream I’ve had since I was a kid. I think everything else that comes with it doesn’t hold the same stature it once did. But I enjoy it, though. I love this game.”
Irving, 26, won a title with Cleveland in 2016 and has been named an All-Star five times.
