Kyrie Irving: ‘Resolve, compromise, sacrifice, communication’ keys to past Big 3 successes
NEW YORK — If you ask Kyrie Irving, it didn’t happen overnight.
Yes, Irving hit the fading, side-step shot over Stephen Curry’s outstretched arms to dethrone the 73-9 Golden State Warriors and deliver the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers their first NBA title in franchise history.
But that moment, he says, was years in the making, not just the byproduct of a single, magical Cavs season.
After Collin Sexton’s 42-point barrage led Irving’s old Cleveland team past the Nets on Wednesday, Irving went on a trip down memory lane reliving his lone championship season. He explained how he, LeBron James and Kevin Love eventually jelled — a process he knows will have to happen alongside two new superstars in Brooklyn in Kevin Durant and James Harden.
“It took resolve, compromise, sacrifice and communication for that team to work,” Irving said.
The Cavs drafted Irving with the No. 1 overall pick in 2011, and like seasons of Brooklyn’s past, the Cavaliers were at the bottom of the standings in the aftermath of LeBron James’s departure for Miami. They did not clear 25 wins in Irving’s first two NBA seasons and missed the playoffs with 33 wins in Year 3.
But in Year 4, James came back to Cleveland and brought the squad with him. The Cavaliers had a roster that made sense: Three stars whose games complemented one another, and a host of role players who played both ends of the floor.
“We had a great collection of gamers, hoopers. So when we jelled, it was just playing the game the right way, and if we weren’t jelling, we were just trying to climb back out of things because we were just throwing our talent everywhere,” Irving said. “We knew coming into every game that we had a great chance to win. It took time, and it took communication, so to your point, as I take you down memory lane, it just took a lot of resolve and honest communication.”
Irving is now in similar territory. He said it was key to have a leader like James take pressure off of him. During the offseason, Irving said Durant has that level of leadership, and that he looks at No. 7 as someone who “can hit that shot, too” in the clutch. The Nets have shooters, defenders, two-way players, and a big man in DeAndre Jordan. They also have open roster spots and a Disabled Player Exception they can use with Spencer Dinwiddie (ACL) out indefinitely.
The Nets also added Harden, who has been part of a prospective Big 3 in the past with Durant and Russell Westbrook the season the Oklahoma City Thunder made the 2012 NBA Finals but lost to James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat.
“We all have great skill sets. It’s just communication of where we want each other to be,” Harden said. “When things are going great and things are going bad, and that’s all that matters. If we’re on the same page, we have that communication, we have a very good chance of winning the majority of our games.”
The Nets are still very new, and Irving’s Cavaliers did lose in their first trip to the NBA Finals. Irving missed that series due to a knee injury, and Love did not play after injuring his shoulder in Game 1.
The Cavaliers came back healthy the next season and won their first title in NBA history, prompting the Warriors to break basketball by signing Durant as a free agent. Irving’s trip down memory lane should both remind him how dominant Durant was in that series, and excite him about how dominant the Nets can be as their core group of stars, veterans and key rotation players continue to mesh through this early season.
