Kyrie Irving plans to razz Warriors on Team USA about the Finals
One of the coolest things about USA Basketball is that it allows players who spend most of their careers as rivals to be teammates. Plus, unlike the All-Star Game, international basketball acts as a competitive atmosphere. Star players can take on new roles — just remember Kobe Bryant as a defensive specialist in 2008, or Carmelo Anthony’s discovery that he would have been the greatest EuroLeague player ever.
At the same time, national team participants do not cast off their usual associations just because they wear the same uniform for about a month. For instance, Kyrie Irving is still the same person who beat new teammates Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Harrison Barnes in the NBA Finals two Sundays ago.
Irving knows as much. In fact, he attends on reminding those Golden State Warriors that his Cleveland Cavaliers beat them whenever he gets the chance. From an interview with ESPN’s Mike and Mike on Tuesday morning (via SB Nation):
“There’s a connection that we all share that’s bonded for life of USA Basketball that allows us to be comfortable and being with one another. But, you know, there will be a few jabs thrown … because there are three Warriors on this team, and I am the current champion, so I will be throwing it in their faces.”
At least Kyrie doesn’t try to act like anything but a proud and boastful winner. The Cavs won the championship under amazing circumstances, becoming the first team ever to come from 3-1 down in the series and doing it against a 73-win squad trying to become known as the greatest team in NBA history. For that matter, Irving wasn’t just some dude riding LeBron James’s coattails — he hit the game-winning shot and was excellent over the final five games. Why shouldn’t he be a little brash about the title?
It’s tempting to argue that this good-natured ribbing could threaten to undermine the chemistry of Team USA, but the fact is that putting a bunch of rival NBA players on the same team is bound to create these issues. For instance, the Warriors could also find some awkwardness with Kevin Durant if he rebuffs the team’s free agent overtures this offseason, just as Harrison Barnes and Durant could have a weird conversation or two if the latter replaces the former as Golden State’s small forward.
The best way to deal with that dynamic is probably to accept it as inescapable. Players like Kyrie are never going to disregard their regular-season loyalties entirely, and it’d be foolish to expect them to forget them.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
