Kyrie Irving will be starting his second season with the Boston Celtics next week, but recently reflected on his time with the Cleveland Cavaliers who traded him to Boston last August. Irving had an overall successful tenure in Cleveland, but says he was never the face of the franchise in an interview with MassLive’s Tom Westerholm:
“I wasn’t the face of the franchise,” Irving said, when asked about his experience as the main player in Cleveland his rookie season. “They made that very clear. I was just a great piece in Cleveland, which I gratefully accepted. …”
“I was just a great piece, a great piece. They weren’t giving me the keys to the franchise. They weren’t. I was too young, man. I didn’t deserve them. But after I while I felt like I earned it, and I took a lot of that responsibility on myself. Still wasn’t ready to do it, but learned a lot from that point to be at this position now.”
Irving was selected with the number one overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft by the Cavaliers, and was immediately thrusted into the team’s starting lineup from the first game of his career onward. Irving led the team in both points and assists for the first three seasons of his career, but failed to lead the franchie prior to the arrival of LeBron James.
As a second option to James, the Cavaliers competed in four straight NBA Finals, winning the franchise’s first championship in 2016. Throughout the 2016 postseason, Irving’s stats would warrant first-option status on nearly any other franchise, as he averaged 25.2 points and 4.7 assists en route to the title.
