(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
There was some backlash when the Dallas Mavericks first traded for Kyrie Irving.
While he’s clearly one of the best offensive players the game has ever seen, he came with plenty of baggage, not to mention the fact that he was another ball-dominant scorer next to Luka Doncic.
The early returns weren’t promising.
While both thrived on offense, they were liabilities on defense, and given Kyrie’s history of insubordination and his character, some thought he wouldn’t willingly take a backseat to Luka.
Fast forward to today, and those concerns are a thing of the past.
Irving has meshed perfectly alongside his co-star, and more than that, he’s embraced his role as the No. 2 guy and as the veteran who needs to be their glue guy.
That’s why ESPN insider Brian Windhorst tipped his hat to him for the long way he’s come.
Talking on “Get Up,” he called him one of the best-conditioned athletes in the game, which is something nobody would’ve said of him five or six years ago.
.@WindhorstESPN is extremely impressed with Kyrie Irving.
“I’ve never seen Kyrie Irving like this in mind, body or spirit.” pic.twitter.com/rsFL5UF9vP
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 23, 2024
But more than that, the mental transformation he’s gone through is also remarkable.
He’s out there making sure that Luka thrives and gets what he needs to be the guy, and that was an issue with Kyrie when he played with LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Of course, judging him the same way we did eight years ago when he requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers wouldn’t be fair, but he was in Brooklyn just last year.
Irving has drawn plenty of criticism throughout his career and most of that has been his fault, but we should also give him his props for maturing and becoming the true leader that he’s become in this passage of his career.
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