- Kyrie Irving described his game as Chris Paul-esque when he was in high school
- Kyrie said Paul is his favorite player
- Irving tried to model his game after Paul
Kyrie Irving is one of the more electrifying players in the NBA today, thanks to his spectacular ball-handling skills and an incredible layup package. You’d have thought that someone like him would have modeled his game after the likes of Allen Iverson, but it turns out Irving looked up to Chris Paul.
In rare footage of Kyrie speaking during his high school days, the future eight-time All-Star can be seen describing his game as Chris Paul-esque. Irving, who was playing for the New Jersey Roadrunners in the AAU circuit at the time, also revealed that Paul is his favorite player.
“Chris Paul-esque,” Irving said. “He’s my favorite player. I try to model my game after him.”
You don’t really see a ton of similarities in their games as such, as Paul is a pure point guard while Irving is very much a score-first guard. In Paul’s early years in the league, though, he did consistently score at a very high level as well and was just a dominant player all in all.
The 2008-09 season saw Paul average 22.8 points, 5.5 rebounds, 11.0 assists, and 2.8 steals per game. For a small guard like Irving, that’d be the standard and something for him to emulate. Kyrie certainly got the scoring part of it, as he has averaged 23.4 points per game for his NBA career, but an average of 5.7 assists per game does fall well short of Paul’s career average of 9.5 assists per game.
Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving Nearly Got Traded For Each Other
Following the 31-year-old Irving’s trade request earlier this year, the Phoenix Suns were one of the teams interested in acquiring him. The Suns offered a trade package that included Paul for Kyrie, but the Brooklyn Nets wanted more draft picks, and the Suns weren’t interested in giving up more for Irving.
It sure would have been something if Kyrie got traded for the man who was, at one point, his favorite player. Irving would eventually end up on the Dallas Mavericks, while Paul was first traded to the Washington Wizards this offseason after which he was traded again to the Golden State Warriors.
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