Kyrie Irving is part of the interesting Brooklyn Nets team right now after a couple of tumultuous years with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics. Irving became a champion with the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers champion led by LeBron James.
He’s trying to win his second ring with the Nets and Kyrie revealed what his new team needs to take that step and win a title. During a recent press conference after his first game back, Kyrie recalled what LeBron James did for him and the rest of those Cavs to take them to the promised land in a magical season for them that saw the Cavs return from a 3-1 deficit in the Finals against the Golden State Warriors (5:00 mark).
“It takes a lot of resolve and honest communication which having leaders like Bron takes a lot of pressure off myself. Being able to perform and lead the group and I was just learning. I learned as much as I could from him and other guys. It took resolve, compromise, sacrifice, and communication for that team to work,” Irving said about LeBron.
Irving also said what made the Cavaliers a big team in the East after they struggled the past four years. Irving tried to become the leader but things didn’t click until James arrived from the Miami Heat.
“We were at the bottom, and we had to start and work our way up. When Bron came back in my fourth year, after killing it in Miami and doing what he was doing, he came, and then K-Love came, and the ball got rolling really, really quickly. It was new being around greatness every single day, seeing LeBron, seeing K-Love, see myself, Tristan, and I can name all the guys we had. We had a great collection of gamers, hoopers. When we geealed, we played the game the right way. We knew coming into every game, we had a great chance to win, and it took time; it took communication.”
This isn’t the first time Kyrie talks about this and say these things about LeBron. He stated in the past that he didn’t like his role as a leader for the Cavs due to his young age. Back in December, it was reported that Irving wasn’t comfortable with his position on the Cavs before LeBron James arrived on the team.
“He often lashed out on Twitter in those days about things that were written and said about him,” Lloyd wrote. “He used to tell me in those early days before LeBron returned, ‘I don’t know why everyone is looking at me to be the leader. I’m just a kid trying to figure this out.’”
Kendrick Perkins also discussed this topic, claiming that Kyrie didn’t like the fact that he was some sort of the “little brother” on that Cavaliers team, which led to his exit from the franchise. All of that happened in two years and now Kyrie has broken his silence about what he learned from LeBron, which is a lot, and what he can do now with the Nets. They have a very talented Big 3 now but isn’t enough to win in the NBA.
