Getty Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry, and LeBron James at Quicken Loans Arena in 2016.
The year 2016 was perhaps the best of Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving’s career. He won a gold medal with the United States men’s basketball team in the Rio Olympics. This came just months after completing a historic 3-1 comeback against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals to secure his first and only championship.
Game 7 of that series is widely regarded as one of the best games to date in NBA history. Not only because of what was at stake but the gameplay in itself. Irving hit a three-pointer over NBA Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry to put the Cleveland Cavaliers ahead in the final minute of the contest. While it was arguably the biggest shot in NBA history, it is often overshadowed by LeBron James’ chase-down block on Andre Iguodala that would have put the Warriors ahead with under a minute to go.
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Andre Iguodala Gives Kyrie Irving High Praise
Despite Irving hitting the go-ahead bucket in Game 7 LeBron went on to win the Finals Most Valuable Player award. But Irving did gain the respect of a former Finals Most Valuable Player in Iguodala, as the three-time champ praised his 2016 performance during a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club.
“Kyrie Irving is one of the most different human beings I’ve ever seen play basketball… We take a lot away from Kyrie Irving,” Iguodala said. “What he did that entire series, it was like, yo, don’t take away from what he did.”
Kyrie Talks About His Mentality in Game 7
In the second half of Game 7, Irving scored 17 of his 26 points to help lift the Cavaliers over the Golden State Warriors. Kyrie probably has never played a better stretch of basketball than he did in June of 2016. Irving said that his play would not have been possible without him approaching the game in a way that he never had approached it before.
“I don’t think my mind has really contemplated so many scenarios ever in the last 48 hours,” Irving said to USA Today after the Game 7 win.
“You know, you’re thinking about win-loss, what you’re going to do out there? What’s the effect you’re going to have on the game? What are your teammates going to do? There was so much going on in my mind that when I started out the game, I actually communicated with my teammates, ‘All right, I’ve got to really just settle into this moment.’”
Kyrie Details His Go-Ahead Bucket in Game 7
Irving’s shot in Game 7 made time standstill. The score had been 89-89 for several possessions as both the Warriors and Cavaliers were fighting tooth and nail to score a go-ahead bucket. As Cleveland’s second-best player, Irving says he had the trust of his teammates which gave him the confidence to take such a gutsy shot.
“It was a shot I’ve been practicing for a while,” Irving continued. “I practice it during my offseason workouts, my in-season workouts. It was really just the trust from my teammates and just being in that moment.”
With training camp just days away Irving will enter into the 2021 NBA season, with championship or bust expectations upon him and the Nets. Fans in Brooklyn will be hoping he can deliver just like he did in Cleveland.