While the Warriors needed just five games to defeat Cleveland in the 2017 NBA Finals, the champs had no answers for Cavs guard Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie went off for 29.4 ppg in the series, making ridiculous shot after ridiculous shot and wowing his NBA peers in the process.
Finals MVP Kevin Durant sat down with The Ringer’s Bill Simmons on Tuesday to discuss the Finals, and compared Kyrie to Allen Iverson. Starting at 35:03:
“I was telling some of my friends after Game 2, I was like, Kyrie, he just makes you happy when you watch him play. You just smile when you watch him play because for somebody to be that skilled, you know he had to work tirelessly at it. The stuff he has in his package is next-level stuff that you can try to teach your kids to do it, but you’ll never be able to do it.
“I’ve never seen somebody block his layup, and he’s 6-2. I’ve never seen one person pin his layup on the glass—not one—because the spin he got on it and he don’t have to look at it. I just got so much respect for him because I know how much work he put in to be that good. I never seen nobody like him.” […]
(At 37:07) “Kyrie is better than AI to me. I’m going from like skill for skill. His handle is better. We might have to cut that out—I don’t want no problems with AI. Y’all might have to cut that one. I don’t want that to get out. I’m just saying I feel like Kyrie got more skill.”
Both Kyrie and Iverson were incredible shot-makers and lethal isolation scorers. Both had ball-on-a-string handles, and an endless layup package.
Let us know who you got in the comments: Kyrie or Iverson?
https://youtu.be/9exq8sfTRd0?t=32s
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