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Kyrie Irving’s Defection Signals What We All Search For

Call it what you like, but Irving is acting on primal instinct alone.

By Myles StedmanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Much has been made of Kyrie Irving’s defection from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics. Fans love to attempt to understand the motives of athletes making against-the-grain decisions.

While he certainly landed on a good team he has helped make great, Irving’s departure from Cleveland certainly raised its fair share of eyebrows.

Irving left the team he won his first NBA championship with. A team featuring the world’s best player, LeBron James. A team whose fate is annually and inextricably tied to the Finals.

Today’s League is founded upon two pillars: money and success. With the Cavaliers, Irving had both. Now, he is back to fighting for the latter.

Two popular explanations have emerged for why Irving traded the Cavs for the Celtics, which measure up to each other in some ways.

Some fans maintain Irving was sick of James ruling over his team with a father-like mentality; “sonning” Irving, as some have coined it.

Whether purposefully or not, LBJ did nothing to dissuade this on media day on September 25, referring to Irving as “kid” five times.

The other is perhaps a more simple and rational explanation. Irving wanted to lead his own team, and reach the heights his talents are capable of, but could ultimately only be realised as a “number one.”

The new Cs point guard pointed to this as a primary motivator in his interview with First Take.

“I deemed it right for me, as a 25-year-old man, I wanted to be in a space where I could have ‘demand’ from a coaching staff, ‘demand’ from a franchise that would propel me to exceed my potential,” he said.

The truth likely lies somewhere in-between these two explanations, somewhere connected to an intrinsic human desire burning inside us all.

For those criticising Irving’s decision, it may be the most “human” choice that he could’ve made.

Although similar, Irving and James’ career trajectories have obviously taken wildly different paths.

They both came into the NBA with Cleveland, in 2011 and 2003 respectively. Irving landed on a 19-63 (.232%) team that had lost James the year prior. His presence led to a 21-45 (.318%) record the year after, in a lockout-shortened season.

James landed on an even worse team in 2003, going 17-65 the year prior. His presence alone lead to 18 more wins in his rookie year, as they went 35-47. From day one, at 19 years of age, he was literally the man around town.

It was nothing new to him, as this had been his life since age eight, a point when he recognised himself as the man of the house. For Irving, life and basketball was much different.

In addition to having to wait until James arrived back in town to make his Playoffs debut, Irving was raised by his father, after his mother died when he was only four years old.

Being the man around town was not something Irving had ever known. Even at college, he played only 11 games with the Duke Blue Devils, with a foot injury keeping him out for most of his only season in the NCAA.

What made him realise, or why now, is anyone’s guess, but Irving had reached the farthest point James could take him. It was time to be his own man, lead his own team. Time to be the man around town.

Before you play this off as a petulant and naïve sentiment on which he had based his decision, consider how this may be a desire of us all: not just to succeed, but to lead success, to build success, and to champion it.

No one wants their success defined by others. To this point in time, Irving’s was. In his one championship, coming back from 3-1 down against the Golden State Warriors, it was James’ monstrous performances earning the majority of the plaudits.

Irving may have made the clutch shot to give his team the lead and ultimately the ‘chip, but it was James’ 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists which won the limelight.

Now there will be no more of that. Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, and youngsters Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum make for elite bookends, but Irving is the crux of this team.

Make no mistake. Within Irving is the desire to do little more than succeed, and lead his own success. It’s something we all strive for, and something previously unavailable to him with his old team.

For Irving, it was time to be his own man. He now has this chance, and it will be fascinating to see his response.

basketball
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About the Creator

Myles Stedman

Journalist at Rugby.com.au | NEAFL media team

Contributor at Zero Tackle, RealSport, The Unbalanced, FanSided, Last Word on Hockey and SB Nation.

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