Kyrie Irving hit the biggest shot in the Cavs Game 7 triumph over the Warriors last year, with his three from the right wing that gave the Cavs the lead for good in Game 7 at 92-89.
It was an iconic moment, one he reveled in in the weeks after he hit the shot, but the immediate reaction from Irving after winning the first title in franchise history wasn’t unbridled joy and to break down in tears like LeBron James, instead it was dread.
In comments he made to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst during training camp, revealed in a recent story, Irving said he spent his first moments after winning the NBA championship worried about having to deal with the questions that had persisted throughout the series about his play, most notably his lack of assists and propensity for being a scoring point guard rather than a pass first floor general.
“I was waiting for more questions about, ‘What about you shooting on this possession?’ Or, ‘What about you doing this or that?’ I was done,” Irving said. “I was so defensive that I didn’t celebrate right after we won. I just hugged my dad and my sister. My dad is looking at me like, ‘What’s wrong?’ I’m telling him, ‘I’m waiting for someone to come up and say something to me about what happened during the game.'”
Irving has since learned to let comments and questions about his status as not being a “true point guard” go, but it’s sad that directly after the biggest accomplishment of his professional career, his first thought was to prepare himself to go on the defensive against questions about his play. If anything, that moment should have been the end to those questions, and a moment that freed him from the doubters that the Cavs could succeed as a team with Irving as point guard. It took a little longer for him to come to that realization and Windhorst writes that he shrugs off those questions now, as he’s far more confident in himself and comfortable with how he plays the game.
