I focus on college football, I’m an expert on college football. But as a sports fan, I have opinions on many different sports and leagues. In this edition of Mike On Sports, I explain why Kyrie Irving is overrated.
I’m an old NBA fan. I’m old period. And I’m here to tell you, Kyrie Irving being a great player is a creation of this younger generation. After a colossal fail against the Boston Celtics in an embarrassing series loss, how can anyone prop Kyrie up with the greats in NBA history? And with the great guards in the playoffs? You just can’t do it.
I’ll give you this, he’s a talented player. His ball skills are impressive, he can make people look foolish and when he’s hot he can torch teams for 40 or 50. But he’s not an elite shooter, he’s not a great defender and he can also melt into the background too often a la Homer Simpson in the bushes. Great players don’t disappear when it matters most, and he did.
What has Kyrie done to be considered great? One series in 2016? He’s a solid player in the playoffs, he goes for over 20 with a few assists and rebounds. In the run with LeBron he had some outstanding games and built a legacy that still stands today for some reason, almost a decade later. The truth is he’s a below .500 shooter in the playoffs, he has as many games in the teens as he does over 30 and he’s been average to below average with the Celtics and the Nets before a solid but unspectacular playoff run this year with the Mavericks.
I’d take the following guards, all of whom have won it all as well, over Kyrie. Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and yes Tony Parker and Dennis Johnson. Am I crazy? Many will say so. But each of those guys has two or more NBA titles, each is a far better defender than Irving and each made every team they played for better and the latter statement can’t be said about Irving as the Celtics were better off without him during his time.
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Prop him up if you will. Focus on his skills alone which are amongst the best we’ve seen from a ball handling perspective, but never, even talk about him as one of the best guards in the playoffs or of all time based on one nice run with LeBron.
