Several USA Basketball teammates are bitter rivals in the NBA. A few of them just got finished facing off against each other in the NBA Finals back in June. Kyrie Irving, in particular, caused Draymond Green (along with Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes) a good bit of heartache when he sank a clutch three-pointer in Game 7 to seal the championship for the Cavs and ruin the Warriors’ historic 73-win season.
Irving once again came up big during crunch time in Team USA’s nail-biting victory over Australia on Wednesday night in Rio. With just over a minute and a half remaining, Uncle Drew put the game out of reach with a step-back three-pointer from the right side of the arc that looked eerily similar to the one he made in the Finals. Apparently, it gave Green flashbacks, according to his Snapchat pic after the game. Hat tip to SI.com for the find:
Peep the caption on Draymond's snap pic.twitter.com/xMtCFryRIm
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) August 11, 2016
At least Green has a good sense of humor about it, and it’s obviously a lot easier to stomach while they’re on the same team. Irving was fantastic against the Boomers on Wednesday, scoring 14 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter when Team USA needed it the most. If he keeps this up, he’ll cement his growing reputation as one of the league’s premier clutch players.
(h/t SI.com)
