Kyrie Irving: How the Cavaliers' Star Rookie Is Helping Cleveland Forget LeBron
Kyrie Irving finger-rolled his way into Cleveland fans' hearts during Sunday night’s 88-87 win over the Boston Celtics. As goose bumps collectively rose across Northern Ohio, a battered fan base started to believe once more.
Cavaliers fans have learned to watch tense moments through the slits in our fingers. After nearly 50 years of The Shot, The Fumble, The Drive and The Decision, Cleveland loyalists subscribe to the policy of hoping for the best and expecting the worst. Like Christmas Ale in December, it’s in our blood.
Enter: Kyrie Irving. For the past 18 months, we’ve been removing giant LeBron James billboards with tear-based lubricant. In the meantime, Irving was averaging 17.5 points and 4.3 assists at Duke. While we watched our Cavaliers break an NBA record for consecutive losses, Irving missed two-thirds of the season with a toe injury.
We never saw him coming.
In many ways, Irving is the anti-LeBron. He quietly entered a draft that many claimed was one of the worst in NBA history. He wasn’t a hometown boy. He came from an elite, perennially successful program at Duke. We didn’t watch him destroy our friend, cousin or college roommate’s little brother in high school. Indeed, we didn’t have any connection to him at all.
Yet, here he is. He scored 17 points in the final three minutes in Cleveland’s loss to the New Jersey Nets. He hit the game winning shot against the Celtics, one of the many dream-killing teams on Cleveland’s endless list.
The question, however, remains: Is Kyrie Irving the cure for Cleveland’s LeBron hangover (LeBrongover)? Is our sudden prince helping us forget the King?
Many non-Cleveland observers like to judge us for our lingering pain, and their reasons are many. He didn’t owe you anything, they tell us. Move on.
For us, however, it’s an emotional issue that must be examined through an emotional lens. Let us consider the case of “Clem,” an idealistic, but oft-hurt, single woman in her mid-30s.
Clem was the victim of constant heartbreak. Just when she thought she would never meet her soul mate, “Lenny” came along. Lenny was attractive, smart and rich. Most importantly, he treated Clem like a queen. He showered her with triple-doubles of flowers and candy. She could hardly believe he was real. Her life was finally starting to make sense.
One day, Lenny began to act distant and distracted. He came home smelling like perfume, though Clem couldn’t figure out which kind. His eye would wander to younger, thinner women. The relationship hit bottom when Lenny forgot Clem’s birthday and blamed it on a lingering headache. In that moment, she knew she was losing him.
When Lenny left her for a 20-year-old blonde with a D-cup, Clem thought she’d never love again. She got fired from her job after missing 26 days in a row.
One night, during a Kelly Clarkson karaoke marathon, Clem met “Kyle.” He wasn’t particularly attractive or flashy, but he also wasn’t bad compared to the scruffy clientele at the dive bar that night. Plus, he’d walked in during her screechy rendition of Since U Been Gone. She knew he must really like her.
Clem and Kyle are taking it slow, but the relationship shows promise. He can be clumsy and he loses his keys a lot, but he always makes her smile. In hushed tones, Clem tells her friends that Kyle is also a wonderful lover, always putting in his very best effort from start to finish.
Like “Clem,” we Clevelanders want to love again. We still believe that our soul mate is out there despite decades of evidence to the contrary.
So, is Kyrie Irving helping Cleveland forget about LeBron? Sure.
Do we want to grow old with him? We’re not sure yet, but we’ll let him buy us a drink.
