Instagram/Kyrie Irving A screenshot from Kyrie Irving's Instagram video.
The Nets franchise has always had star point guards.
Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, Sam Cassell, Devin Harris and Kenny Anderson were solid during the Nets’ days in New Jersey.
Add Deron Williams Williams and D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn era.
Kyrie Irving is the newest Brooklyn Nets point guard.
A West Orange, New Jersey native, Irving grew up liking the then-New Jersey Nets when they ran the NBA’s Eastern Conference during the days of Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson.
Being a local product from the tri-state area and playing for the Nets is great for Irving.
Irving joins Stephon Marbury, a Brooklyn native and Kenny Anderson, a Queens, New York representer in doing so.
“It’s great, my guy,” Kenny Anderson told me via text message yesterday.
Anderson, a 6-2 point guard was a four-time Parade All-American and New York’s Mr. Basketball in 1989.Anderson led the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to the Final Four in 1990. He was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the second pick in the 1991 NBA Draft.
He played for nine teams in his 14-year NBA career and was the youngest player in the league in his rookie year, and averaged seven points, two rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game.
Kyrie Irving is excited to get started.
“Wow, Wow,” Irving told Brett Carroll and Charles Daye on the the D.O.P.E.Podcast.
“It’s been a long free agency, it’s been a long ride.
“Set the world on fire.
“Nets fans around the world unite.”
Irving’s NYC and hoop ties run deep.
Irving’s dad, Drederick is a native New Yorker from the borough of the Bronx; as is Irving’s godfather, Rod Strickland.
They both grew up in the Mitchell Houses in the South Bronx.
Irving’s father played basketball at Boston University and ironically had a tryout with the Celtics, Irving’s former team before opting to play overseas basketball.
Strickland saw Kyrie Irving dribble a ball from time to time in the backyard and used to tell Drederick Irving, “He’s going to make you some money.”
The first time Strickland saw Irving play in an actual game was when he was in high school when ironically he played in LeBron James’ camp, where Irving put on an absolute show.
“My first eyes on Kyrie as a hooper, I saw him play in Springfield, Massachusetts,” Strickland told me last summer on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
“He made passes, but he was such a gifted scorer and ball-handler that he could put the ball in the hole. But I knew he was special right away. There are some things that everybody’s not doing, so when I see somebody play with both hands, the way he was playing with it in high school, that’s special. You don’t see that a lot.”