Ever since the final buzzer sounded in Oracle Arena, there’s been tons of chatter surrounding Kyrie Irving.
Now, 3-time NBA champion, LeBron James, led all players from both teams in every major statistical category, which makes him the first player to ever accomplish such a feat in the NBA Finals.
However, some detractors on social media are claiming Kyrie Irving deserved Finals MVP honors over LeBron.
Let me start off by saying whoever is making such a claim needs their basketball card removed and on second thought, maybe they don’t even have the card to begin with.
With that out of the way, let’s actually talk about the former number one pick and no, not LeBron, but Mr. Irving himself.
After injuring himself in game one of the NBA Finals a year ago, Irving made sure he left his stamp this time around. During these finals, ‘Uncle Drew’ averaged 27.1 points, 3.9 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game.
More importantly, Irving outplayed the unanimous MVP Wardell Curry.
Yes, Wardell Curry.
Not to mention, Irving made the biggest shot in Cleveland history right on Curry’s head.
As expected, fans and media alike are starting to bump up Kyrie in their point guard rankings. Hell, some are even placing him at the very top now.
Let’s slow down people.
There’s no denying Kyrie’s performance on the biggest stage, but we must consider all of the factors that contributed to his play.
First of all, Kyrie is playing with arguably the best passer to ever play the game in LeBron, who managed to average nearly nine dimes per game in the finals, while Kyrie averaged less than four assists per game.
Whenever you’re a capable scorer and overall shooter like Kyrie is, playing with a guy of LeBron’s caliber just opens things up for you tremendously.
Also, you must take into consideration that Steph Curry didn’t appear to be 100 percent, which made guarding him a lot more easier because he wasn’t putting pressure on the defense by driving to the paint like he’s capable of doing.
Lastly, before prematurely springing Kyrie into your top five point guard list, let’s see him play close to a 82-game season first.
Throughout his five-year career, Kyrie has only played in 60 or more games in two seasons. This past season, the former Duke standout only participated in 53 regular season games.
Having said all of that, I believe Kyrie has a chance to eventually be a top three point guard in this league, but here’s five guys I’m taking over him today.
1. Steph Curry
Yes, Steph Curry is still the best point guard in the world.
Folks are caught up in the moment right now but in a couple of weeks or so, you’ll start seeing individuals come down from their high and begin to realize that Curry is the two-time reigning MVP for a reason.
Flip the pages for 2-5!