You know, it's a honor that I don't take lightly.

And you know, every time I go out there and put it on for my family, for my community, for the native and black indigenous community that I represent, and the Brooklyn Nets and New Jersey.

So there's a great start to a long journey, And I know Nets fans, um, are waiting for us to continue this, and I'm looking forward.

Greg Logan, News day.

I Kyrie uh, I know you can't do this every night, but the way you guys started with 40 points in the first quarter, you and Kate both on fire.

What does that say about how ready you guys were mentally to get this show on the road and And what do you think it says for the future?

Uh, well, for the future, we just got away and see you know, I don't wanna put, uh, you know too many unrealistic expectations on something that's just getting started.

And it's such a sensitive time in the world and and our families come first.

But when we stepped here, here on this floor, you know, when we're checking in for our jobs every single day as artists or athletes, you know, we we take it very serious and we want to go out there and play well, and that starts with the hard work that not a lot of people get a chance to see.

And we've been working hard during training camp, and, you know, we just want that that hard work to continue to pay off in the long run.

You know, we're gonna enjoy this regular season game, the game, but we ultimately know what the goal is after the 72 games that 16 wins.

Brian Lewis, New York Post.

I think it was presumed that this team would be able to score, but how encouraged are you by how you guys played defensively, understanding that that teams a little shorthanded, But how encouraged were you?

Buy that very encouraged.

I mean, it's just another day to get better another day to make progress.

Another day.

Thio.

Solidify the principles on the defensive end and I feel like today it was a great start about Christian Winfield, New York Daily News.

Hey, Kyrie.

In the statement that you wrote earlier this this offseason, you said that you wanted your game to do a lot of the talking for you.

When you come out the way you did tonight on kind of firing all cylinders, Just what kind of message do you think the performance you put on the floor have?

Uh, well, like I said, I'm always grateful to be ableto put on the uniforms.

Strap on my shoes.

Um, it's been a long journey to get here and Thio be ableto master.

This craft and toe learn that it's not just about hero basketball.

It's about how great the team is.

And, you know, I think I got caught up in that in my career a few times, just trying to play hero basketball where you know the team's success is really gonna dictate how great you are as an individual on how great you play your role.

So you know, being here at that, this present moment.

I'm enjoying that and I'm embracing it.

Um, you know, not really doing too much talking.

It's just really about the action.

Let's go out there and and throw the ball in the air and let's see who is the best of the best.

And I'm here to prove that every single night with a great team alongside of me, that gives me confidence.

So, yeah, we look forward to that challenge of just letting our game do the talking and just letting everybody else talking on the external like Andrews, ESPN.

Hey, Kyrie, what do you think when you say, got caught up in playing hero basketball, what changed?

What was the moment of change or growth?

Or however you want to characterize that?

I think it's just the right time.

Um, you know, right?

Situation, right?

Environment, Uh, you know, And to explain that is, you know, as a young player you think that scoring a bunch of points and doing a bunch of things getting individual accolades are great, you know?

And you you excuse me.

I definitely was going after those things.

And now I really don't care for any of those individual accolade accolades or goals.

You know, it really doesn't bother me.

I know I'm validated culturally, you know, and that's all that matters.

I don't need a all MBA.

I don't need an M V.

P.

I just want a championship with a great team that I could look back on history and say We did it our way and we have fun doing it.

You know, I'm in Year 10.

All I wanna do is enjoy.

Every single day.

I'm playing basketball and coming into work.

Other than that, you know, I live my life with my family.

That's that's the most important thing to me.

Brian Mahoney.

Hey, Kyrie.

Obviously you had a really good opening night last night, too, but you had a rough preseason with last year getting off toe.

You know, when you get hit in the face, how do you feel physically versus where you were when the season started last year?

It was definitely a difference, Uh, just because of the amount of preparation that I had to do for last season versus this season and amount of time that we had to get prepared.

It's just it's just a difference, you know, we've been.

I've been off for 10 months, you know, coming into last season coming from Boston, Uh, didn't in the year the way we wanted to in 2019 and before I went to free agency.

So coming into the next season definitely has some things on my mind that I wanted Thio accomplished, but I couldn't do it without being 100% myself, health wise and then also having other guys on my team be 100% healthy as well.

So it wasn't just me who caught the injury bug.

Um, and that's no excuse.

We you know, we put great guys out there that were playing hard, and we definitely were in seventh place in a good position.

But I think our goals are a lot higher this year and we want to just be able to come in and dominate and do that consistently so if we don't really wanna compare it to last year.

But we keep that in the back of our minds, something that we wanna learn from something I wanna learn from.

So I could be better this year.

A Z, we start to see Howard back.

Hey, Kyrie, It's been uh, 18 months or so, since you and Katie first committed here.

What did you envision at the moment that you guys committed together?

And now that it's 18 months later, you finally get to do this together.

Um, how did the actuality of it, um kind of compared to what you had in mind?

And I mean both the basketball and, of course, the environment or lack thereof Tonight?

Yeah.

No, I think it's been a long time coming on.

I'm grateful that we could let our games due to talking, but I'm also grateful that we can have relationships here that matter off the court that help us on the court.

And that was something that I have with Katie.

But I have with other guys on the team as well.

It's just more or less are synergy off the floor.

And then now playing on the floor this year has made a difference.

You know, we spent a lot of time together.

You know, we've just gone through some challenging times and were ableto put on this uniform as a team together, while understanding that the more we stay collective as a group, the better off we'll be in the long run.

We don't wanna let anything disrupt what we got going on here, what our goals are, it's simple.

It's the championship.

So we got to enjoy this record season.

Like I said, Um, but we're just going to enjoy every step of the journey as well, too.

Otis Livingston Hey, Kyrie.

You and Katie have preached that it's not your team.

It's a collective team, just like you just mentioned.

How good was it?

Toe watch tonight and see everybody contribute.

Everybody that got in the game made a contribution, and that's been the plan all along?

Yes, it has.

And it will continue to be that way.

You know, we want to be the best team.

We don't want to be a great collection of this, me and Katie.

And you know, other guys that we have received.

No, we're a great team, and we want to be identified as the Brooklyn Nets team.

I'm not the leading voice in the locker room.

I'm not the leader here.

I'm not this this one guy that's dependent upon to get us over the hump.

No, we have other great players that are developing that already established, and we just need to continue thio, give knowledge we needed to these players that are thirsty for it.

You know, these guys here wanna win just as bad as us.

So if you have that winning mentality and attitude is easy for me to fall in line, you know and follow direction.

We just keep it real simple around here.

You know it's basketball.

We've been doing this for a long time, and now we're at the top of the top.

Now is our chance to continue to show why we are that way.

Thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content.

Subscribe to ESPN plus.