Kyrie Irving. NBA Champion. 6x NBA All-Star. 2014 All-Star Game Most Valuable Player. 2019 All-NBA Second Team. 2015 All-NBA Third Team. Rookie of the Year 2012. FIBA World Cup MVP 2014. 2x USA Basketball Gold Medalist (2016 Rio Olympics, 2014 Spain Basketball World Championships). Kyrie is the most fearsome finisher in the NBA today. His handle is arguably the best in the league. He really does have relentless range, and his creativity and ability off the bounce make him one of the world’s greatest at getting you a bucket (any kind of bucket), whatever the defense, whatever the situation. Add to that his fearlessness, ferocity, and the force and finesse with which he can finish, and you have the foundation for one of the most explosive offensive player in the league. Throw in easily the most outstanding off-hand in the game, and you’d be hard pressed to find a way to stop him.
Irving finished his final season in Boston in the top 15 in scoring (23.8 points per game), steals (1.5 per game), Player Efficiency Rating (12th, just behind Stephen Curry and above the likes of Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, and Paul George), and finished in the top 10 in the stat Value Over Replacement Player (ahead of LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Kemba Walker, Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid). His final stretch left a sour taste in the mouths of most Celtics fans, but at the end of the day, he is still as dangerous and as dynamic a scorer that the league has ever seen.
This was made with one thing in mind: a way to appreciate Kyrie but connect him with the late great Kobe Bryant. When you talk about Mamba Mentality, Kyrie and Kobe were two peas in a pod. In an interview with Sirius XM, Kobe Bryant talked about how he was most connected with Kyrie (link below):
Bryant recalled the time Irving called Bryant via FaceTime after the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit and won the 2016 NBA Finals in Game 7 against the Warriors. He was sitting on the couch with Gianna when his phone rang.
“Kyrie’s in the locker room celebrating on Facetime like, ‘Dude, it worked! Your advice worked!,’” Bryant said. “I was really, really proud of him. So I’d say Kyrie is the one I’m closest to.”
Also, for all the flack Kyrie is getting for taking a stand in the face of the social justice issues, I believe he's in the right and I hope people start seeing that.
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www.si.com/nba/2020/01/30/kyr...