10 Apr, 2024, 08:00 ET
Despite his turbulent journey through the NBA, it seems that Kyrie Irving has found a favorable situation in Dallas and, together with Luka Doncic, a duo that few will want to face in the playoffs.
In June 2016, basketball fans had the joy of enjoying one of the most memorable finals in recent times: The Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the defending champions. Golden State Warriors who had just had the best regular season record in NBA history (73-9).
LeBron James was the MVP of the finals and Kyrie Irving was undoubtedly the second best player in the series, putting up better numbers and playing better than Steph Curry, who was the MVP of the regular season. In addition to the numbers, Irving had an iconic finals moment when he hit the three-pointer in the final seconds that would give the Cavaliers the championship.
Kyrie showed us a perfect point guard/shooting guard package: his ball handling, his ability to finish drives to the basket with both hands, his play in the paint, his three-point shot and his free throw efficiency.
Those finals gave us the impression that we were seeing a generational player, a special talent, who should be mentioned with the best players in the NBA: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, among others.
But no one expected the storm of controversy that would haunt Kyrie Irving for the next few years in the NBA. Here is a brief review:
The Earth is flat
In a podcast by Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye in 2017, Irving expressed that despite popular thinking the Earth is flat. “It’s not a conspiracy theory: the Earth is flat and the proof is before our eyes. The Earth is flat, they lie to us,” said Irving. This started a theme in the press around the player’s eccentricity. One year He later apologized publicly, admitting that he was carried away by conspiracy theories but that thanks to the incident he understood the importance of his voice.
Asks to be traded from the Cavaliers
Just one season after winning the championship in Cleveland, and having what seemed like a perfect partner for him in LeBron James, Kyrie asked to be traded and ended up in Boston. Sources claimed that Kyrie was tired of being in LeBron’s shadow and wanted his own team.
Failure in Boston
After promising to extend his contract in Boston when he was traded, Kyrie changed his mind. Two unsuccessful seasons (one due to injury, and another without reaching the conference finals) in addition to a lack of chemistry with the rest of the team, led Kyrie to leave Boston for New York and sign with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent.
Controversial stay in Brooklyn
His stay in Brooklyn was full of controversies and contradictions:
He teamed up with a superstar in Kevin Durant after leaving Lebron James for wanting to blaze his “own” path.
He mentioned that he was finally going to play with a player who could close games like him (direct complaint to LeBron).
He decides that he does not want to get vaccinated against Covid 19 and misses home games in New York due to state rules.
Nor does he travel to the famous NBA “bubble” in Orlando.
He posts a link on social media about an anti-Semitic documentary that causes chaos with the press and ends with Nike cutting off its sponsorship.
The Nets fail, never reaching the conference finals in four years.
Our buzzer beater instinct: DOGPILE 😂
Every angle of Kyrie’s shot 📐 #MFFL pic.twitter.com/wgT7c2FCL0
— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) March 18, 2024
Trade from the Nets to the Mavs
Given the failure in Brooklyn and the amount of controversies, the Nets decide to start from scratch and get rid of their star players, trading Kyrie to the Dallas Mavericks.
Mark Cuban saw in Kyrie the same thing that we saw in the 2016 finals, and that was lost during his career in Boston and Brooklyn due to controversies: a generational talent. Cuban, who already had a generational talent at point guard in Luka Doncic, took the risk of adding Kyrie thinking he could help his team compete in the Western Conference. Although many criticized him, Cuban was right.
The Mavs are in fifth place in the West, above teams like the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers and Warriors, and Kyrie is a big part of that success. Not only, his numbers indicate it, but Doncic is having the best stats of his career this season. “He’s making the game easier for Luka,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said. “But also for the other (three) that are on the court, and it’s fun to watch.”
This year Kyrie Irving is giving a lot to talk about and it’s all about his performances on the court. Less than a month ago, Kyrie scored a game winner over the defending champion Denver Nuggets with a high-difficulty shot, a left-handed free throw floater over Nikola Jokic. “Kyrie made an extremely difficult shot… If anyone can make that shot it’s Kyrie,” the two-time league MVP said.
After that game, Draymond Green said on his podcast: “There’s really nothing you can do to stop Kyrie from scoring; you just try to do everything you can to make him take a tough shot and you live with the results,” Green said . “I saw Damian Lillard tweet, ‘Kyrie Irving is the most skilled player in NBA history,’ and frankly, I’m not sure who can argue against that… The things Kyrie is capable of are unreal “.
Editorial Selections
1 Related
This past weekend, Kyrie Irving scored 48 points in a win over the Houston Rockets, scoring 19 of them in a 22-point comeback. It was the third time this season that Doncic and Irving scored at least 35 points, the most of any duo in the NBA, according to ESPN Stats and Information.
“The energy is extremely high, the vibe is good, he’s doing everything we expected him to do… And he’s doing it at a high level,” Jason Kidd said.
Despite his turbulent journey through the NBA, it seems that Kyrie has found a favorable situation in Dallas and, together with Luka Doncic, a duo that few will want to face in the playoffs. There are no controversies in Dallas, just high-level basketball, so we can finally enjoy Kyrie Irving’s game.
2024-04-10 08:34:53
#Kyrie #Irving #returns #level #led #AllStar #NBA
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