By james art 
As he prepares to go to his ninth game on All-Star, Kiri Irving cannot but appreciate symmetry.
That is why he treats the weekend as a big date of daddy.
“She’s nine years old,” Irving said. “I’m nine-time all-Star.”
So as he goes to San Francisco for extravagance, his heart will be healthy with daughter Azuri Elizabeth.
“It will definitely accept it as it comes,” Irving said of what he expects to be the weekend. “But I have scheduled dates for daddy daddy on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Azurie is really inflated.
“I talked to her earlier on the phone and asked her, do you remember your first All-Star game? She was a little baby. And now, when she is nine, she is able to have these memories in her brain a little better. “
While receiving a long weekend for rest and recharging mentally would be enjoyable for Irving. Instead, he will have an assortment of duties in San Francisco. There will be responsibilities in the media, time to work with his teammates All-Star and the games themselves in a new format on Sunday.
But all this will take the back place to make sure that his daughter has a memorable time.
She will meet the NBA players. And WNBA players. Irving told her it was like the Super Bowl’s NBA version, where everyone shrinks to celebrate the game and visit old and new friends.
And it will be a pleasure to know that his daughter is already old enough to find out who her father is.
“Yes, it feels good as a father,” Irving said. “By striking your time. I always want to be there for her. But she had to find out at a young age that Dad was working hard and trying to provide her with a better future. It’s good that we can talk about it. “
Irving’s first appearance of Erving came in 2013, his second season in the league and long before his daughter was born.
His ninth appearance comes after he was named by Commissioner Adam Silver as a substitute for Anthony Davis’s injury, something Irving said and had many injuries to almost every player on the list.
“When the boys are in and out of the lineup, it is difficult to find this sequence,” Irving said. “I would say that the best word is sustainability. It’s just a stable year. Being All-Star, named by Adam Silver, I don’t accept it lightly. I had the feeling that I was winning my preservation to be one of the best 26 players in the world. I’m just sustainable and can sacrifice part of my game to see others shine. “
Irving stopped calling this rejuvenation of his career. He said, if something else, it happened last season when Mavericks reached the NBA finals.
“Maybe last year I would use this word,” he said. “Going into the season and I’m not sure how we will succeed. You were just led by faith and it was a total effort of the team.
“The way I look at our opportunity here (now) is unique. Personally, I was just trying to be the best of my best every night and be ready to play as many minutes and take us to win. After all, just be prepared to play so that it trusted there. “
Then he added: “The finals were great, he loved this, rejuvenation last year. But it’s just that you are resistant to put your hard hat. “
And it’s also about knowing when to download this hard hat and put on warm, blurred hats that lead to good times with his daughter.
While NBA players are sometimes seen as machines, they all have a home life. And Irving enjoys his own as always.
“Just find out that some of the things I have struggled with as a child when you see your child deal with difficult times like this, you start to see yourself in them,” he said. “And the goal is to make sure that they have better tools, better resources, to navigate it.
“I try to authorize her, be with her, and she taught me how to be patient and stop worrying so much. As a parent, you always worry what your children are doing. I’m still defending. But I am grateful for this aspect. “
X: @esefko