As Kyrie Irving went down and struggled to make it up the court towards the end of game 1 of the NBA Finals, the hearts of Cleveland Cavaliers fans sank and the almost impossible situation coming into the series, became even worse. Then, a little known Australian point guard brought his talents he crafted in ‘the down under’ to the main stage of the NBA Finals and changed a whole lot for the Cavs. Matthew Dellavedova has been instrumental since Kyrie went down with that injury but Delly won’t be the answer for the Cavs in the future. It will be the player they gave a max contract to before LeBron James even decided to come home.
Kyrie Irving is the point guard going forward in Cleveland, no matter what Delly does over the next few days. Despite the reports of Irving’s agent and father having issues with the handling by the Cavs of Kyrie’s knee issues, it appears the point guard has no regret for how everything went down. There was a rumbling over the amount of minutes Kyrie has been playing in the playoffs, fighting through his knee and foot issues. Unfortunately for Irving, the injury bug he’s been avoiding for weeks, finally caught up to him and stung him. He shouldn’t feel any regret, it’s an injury and no one is at fault here, granted, it was a contact injury when his and Klay Thompson’s knee connected after Irving lost the ball but there’s no one to blame here besides fate.
Following from Sean Highkin of NBC’s Probasketball Talk.
Kyrie Irving could tell right away that this injury was different. He bumped knees with Warriors guard Klay Thompson in overtime of Game 1 of the Finals, and it turned out much worse than the knee tendinitis he’d been dealing with throughout the postseason.
“I kind of knew,” Irving said on Wednesday, addressing media for the first time since undergoing knee surgery last week. “The way it felt, it was something I hadn’t felt before. Walking to the bench, I looked at our trainer, Steve, and I’m just like, ‘Man.’ I’m walking around and I was like, ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ and I had to walk off the court and that was it.”
“It’s a tough situation to be in, especially at the Finals on the biggest stage,” he said. “Dealing with injuries throughout the playoffs is definitely tough, and it’s a test of your will. But for me to go out like that, fractured kneecap, out three to four months, it’s tough to process. But having the teammates that I have and the coaching staff and the organization I’m part of, it makes that process a lot easier, just being at home watching these guys play and texting all the guys and FaceTiming all the guys as much as possible.”
“That’s probably the thing that hurts the most is how great I felt going into that game, and then one freak moment, how it could all kind of end for three to four months. I mean, I wouldn’t do it any different. Like I said on my Instagram post or on Twitter, I don’t have any regrets for the decision I made. I trust our organization, and I trust our training staff to the full extent.”
Irving is slated to miss up to four months with his broken kneecap but that shouldn’t mean he misses any time going into next season. It’s a reassuring thing also for Irving to know that there is a sustainable backup in place that can come in when he needs relief to hold down the team while he rests. Matthew Dellavedova might not be the ball-handler, shooter or finisher at the rim that Kyrie is but he has proven his worth to this team in the 2015 NBA Finals with his defense, toughness and hustle.
Irving in good spirits is great to see, especially based off his laundry list of injuries throughout his career. Kyrie has come back from a foot issue, facial fractures and even hand issues just to continue to play like one of the best offensive point guards in the league. Now it’s time to support his teammates and do some damage control so his camp and the Cavs are on the same page going forward.
