I’ve tried so so hard this season, and last for that matter, to not bash Kyrie. I honestly tried to convince myself that since he was “home” in Brooklyn, that he could finally not have a problem and just play basketball. I thought that, and every step of the way I have been proven wrong. Kyrie Irving is one of the best Point Guards in the game today. Hell, he’s probably one of the top 15 Point Guards of all-time. He is an absolute wizard with the ball, he will break you down for the entire shot clock, and then pull back, or blow by you for a bucket. When he is in the zone he becomes Uncle Drew for real. When Kyrie is at his best, there is hardly anything that he can’t do. This is why this is a tough pill to swallow for Kyrie or Nets fans: Irving makes teams worse. Exponentially worse.
It all started in 2011. Kyrie Irving is the #1 overall pick out of Duke after only playing 11 games. He goes to a Cleveland Cavaliers team who just lost LeBron James to the Miami Heat in free agency a year prior. For the next three years Kyrie Irving lit up the entire league on a personal level, but that failed to translate into franchise success. No one blames Irving of course; Cleveland has a reputation of not being able to build a team around a star, precisely the reason that LeBron left the organization. The highest number of games the Cavs won in that three year stretch was 33, and they went to the draft lottery every year. At the end of the 2013-2014 season, Kyrie was convinced that the 2014-2015 season was going to be his breakout year. He was going to be the guy that takes the Cavs back to the playoffs, he’ll be the savoir of the franchise, and he’ll be the undisputed “man.” Until he wasn’t.
We all know what happens next. LeBron comes home. The Cavs traded Andrew Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love, and the rest is history. They made it to the Finals for four straight years, winning the improbable comeback that was the 2016 NBA Finals, where the Cavs came back from a 3-1 deficit to the Golden State Warriors. They say that winning fixes everything, but I think in this case, it made things worse for Kyrie. When LeBron came back to Cleveland, there were obviously going to be headlines all about LeBron, and why not? The Miami Heat version of LeBron James is HANDS DOWN the best basketball player I have ever seen live. So with LeBron coming back to his hometown team, it makes sense that everyone would be excited to have him. Having the world’s best player coming to a team that you play for is the definition of “rising tide lifts all boats.” Kyrie Irving was just handed the best chance he had at winning a championship, and in only his fourth year in the league. Some guys go decades without even making it to the Finals, and Kyrie was able to do it four times in a row. Somehow that wasn’t enough.
Stories began to emerge that Kyrie was unhappy with his second fiddle role to LeBron and he wants out of Cleveland. This one I don’t really blame him for. Kyrie was and is a very good basketball player, and basketball players like most athletes are competitors. They want to prove that they can carry a team. Not to mention the fact that there was no internal word on whether or not LeBron was going to resign with the Cavs after the 2018 season. With all of the uncertainty in the air, Kyrie requests the trade out of Cleveland, and he gets his wish. He ends up in Boston with Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, young gun Jaylen Brown, and rookie Jayson Tatum. On paper list is one of the most talented teams Kyrie has ever been on, but there is a reason they say that you have to play the games.
Gordon Hayward goes down the first night of the season, so Jaylen and Jayson have to take big leaps. They showed tremendous growth during the season, but when the playoffs came around, Kyrie was out with an injury. With two of their best players on the sideline, the Celtics were able to push the LeBron led Cavs to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals. It was sad as a Celtics fan to watch, but it made me really hopeful for next season. With a healthy team, there is no reason that we couldn’t make it to the Finals. I mean, we were one game away without two of our best players, so why can’t we run it back? Chemistry. That was the reason that we didn’t make it back. Throughout that whole season there was a lot of backbiting, a lot of locker room issues, and it was all led by one Kyrie Irving. Nothing was ever his fault, everything would work if things were ran the way he wanted, and the excuses never stopped.
After a disappointing season with the Celtics, Kyrie took his talents to the Brooklyn Nets to play with superstar, and best friend, Kevin Durant. I didn’t personally want Kyrie back in Boston, so I was happy to see him leave. I was also expecting for this to be the time in Kyrie’s life and career to start being a good leader and a good teammate. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until after a loss to the 76ers where Kyrie said that this team was missing one or two more pieces, basically dividing the locker room into the “guys Kyrie likes” and the “guys who are about to get traded.” Not too much longer after that Kyrie went out for the year with injury and the season was basically a wash. This season, however, had the potential to be the season that Kyrie changes his entire perception. With him and Kevin Durant healthy, they could finally show the entire league that the Nets are a team to be reckoned with, and that these two superstars will take this franchise to the promised land. Until the times get tough, I guess.
At the time of writing this, the Nets are on a two game losing streak, getting waxed by the Hawks by 18, and then a one point loss to the Wizards, bringing their overall record to 3-4. The season is young, there are still some chemistry things to work out, and every team goes through losing streaks no matter how small. Then the rumors started again. A report came out that there may be some disconnect with the players in the locker room, and of course Kyrie refuted that, but what else was he supposed to do? Say “oh yeah, we all hate each other?” Of course not. Maybe this is just a rumor, but in most cases, and every case with Kyrie’s career, where there is smoke, there is fire. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a trade in the next few weeks to get some of the role players out of the lineup for the Nets. In exchange for who? Not sure. What I do know is that Kyrie generally gets his way, and that’s exactly why I didn’t want him back in Boston. Kyrie Irving is one hell of a player, but by no means is he worth all of this drama that surrounds him. Kyrie has a chance to prove that he isn’t what the media says about him, and so far, he has fallen flat on his face.
Round The Game 
Leave a comment