Kyrie Irving is known for a lot of controversial things nowadays. The 2021-22 season saw a lot of negative reporting on Kyrie for refusing to get vaccinated and driving James Harden into demanding a trade away from the Brooklyn Nets. Due to the lack of games he has been playing, most of the chatter around Irving relates to his politics or lack of playing.
It wasn’t long ago that the only thing that people wanted to talk about was Kyrie’s silky-smooth handles. People still call Irving one of the greatest ball-handlers to ever touch the NBA floor. While we see flashes of it still when Irving plays, it’s been a while since we saw Kyrie make magic with his dribble moves every night.
Irving has massive respect around the NBA for his skill, and when you see this clip of Irving dribbling through most of Team USA, it will explain why players are so full of compliments for him.
Olympic Kyrie >>>>> pic.twitter.com/lbGiV6rbZn
— The Pettiest Laker Fan 🤫 (@ThePettiestLA) June 8, 2022
That was basketball wizardry. While people can criticize him for not going up and finishing the move, we won’t be doing so as nothing can take away from how he shook someone like Kobe Bryant completely out of his defender’s zone and then lost James Harden by performing a devilishly quick spin move.
Irving used to regularly enthrall fans and players alike with his nimble movement across the court. Nowadays, we don’t get to see it as often. When we do see him play, we can tell the handles are the same. It’s just that he isn’t as quick as he used to be years ago.
Irving can easily get himself back into the conversation with the best guards in the league and next season, he will have to be the primary guard scorer for the Nets for them to be competitive through the season and playoffs.
