During USA Basketball‘s 86-63 walloping of Mexico on Saturday in their final game of group play before the single-elimination round starts today, Kyrie Irving played 24 minutes after suffering a scary fall the game before against the Ukraine. Except, after suiting up against Mexico, now comes word he was so sore he couldn’t even sit down.
“I couldn’t even sit down on the bench,” Irving said Monday, by way of ESPN.com.
It seems when Irving said he was “all good” on Twitter after the game, he wasn’t actually so good.
“I really wanted to be out there,” Irving said, and it was clear the World Cup stage was part of the reasoning.
“This is by far the biggest stage I’ve played on in my career,” Irving continued, and he’s right. He hasn’t ever been to the playoffs during his first three years in the NBA, and after only appearing in 11 games for Duke during his lone freshman season, he never got much of an opportunity to shine at that level.
Still, the USA didn’t really need his four points, two assists, two turnovers and three blocks on Saturday, but still Kyrie played, while standing by the bench when he was out.
“Nothing is guaranteed,” Irving acknowledged. “If we lose, there’s a lot at stake.
“I just try to bring the confidence that I have in myself to this team that we’re the best in the world,” Irving added a day before they face Slovenia and point guard Goran Dragic. “We have respect for all the other countries and what they do, but … we have the best players in the world playing for our team [and now] we just have to go out and prove it every night.”
Despite Kyrie’s drive to compete — especially playing for his old college coach on a stage, the FIBA World Cup, that’s the biggest of his career — we’re not sure Cleveland’s brass was very thrilled when they heard he couldn’t even sit down against Mexico on Saturday, just two days after his scary fall against the Ukraine.
Even so, he’ll be tasked — along with Derrick Rose, James Harden and Stephen Curry, with keeping up with Dragic, who has continued to show why he was an All-NBA Third team selection last season.
(ESPN)
Should Kyrie have played?
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