“19 y/o me without LeBron James was too much pressure”: Kyrie Irving dealt with too many expectations in 2011

Kyrie Irving opens up about playing without LeBron James on the Cleveland Cavaliers in his first years in the NBA. 

Kyrie Irving will forever have his name etched in the annals of NBA history for hitting that sidestep 3 over Steph Curry in the waning minutes of Game 7 during the 2016 Finals. Aside from that one moment in history, Irving has established himself as a tier 1 point guard in this league over the 10+ years he’s been in it. 

From the get-go it was clear that the Duke prospect was going to go number one overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. Sure enough, despite his 6’2 stature, he was picked ahead of the likes of Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler. 

Coincidentally, the Cleveland Cavaliers were once again bestowed with the number one overall pick that year. This is due to the fact that their ‘prodigal son’, LeBron James, had left them in free agency in the summer of 2010 after seven straight years of postseason disappointment. 

The Cavs would go 19-63 in 2010-11 after going 61-21 the year prior, thus granting them the best odds of snagging that coveted pick.

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Kyrie Irving on the onus of being good being placed on him. 

Kyrie Irving is quite the private man. He doesn’t talk to the media all too much, only hops on Twitter when he has something important to say, and rarely appears out in public. His appearance on LeBron’s ‘The Shop’ is quite the momentous occasion as the 7x All-Star sat down with a multitude of stars to talk about life on and off the court. 

He would go on to open up about what it was like being drafted to Cleveland after James had left the team, claiming that it was a ton of pressure to put on a 19 year old. 

“I was watching the ‘30 for 30’ on ‘The Decision’- a year later, I was drafted into that Cleveland, emotional train. The prodigal son, the chosen one has left and here we have this 19 year old kid, I’m 6’2, I’m not jumping out of the gym.” 

“Emotionally, I was dealing with things I had no idea how to deal with. When I took on that pressure as my own, I was feeling like I had to bring Cleveland back to the promiseland. That’s a solo act,” said Kyrie Irving. 

In those 3 years KAI was a Cavalier without LeBron James, the Cavs won 21 games, 24 games, and 33 games in the regular season. However, what James saw out of the young Irving was clearly enough to bring him back home in his pursuit of fulfilling his promise to the city of Cleveland.

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