Superstar or not, you have to admit, Kyrie's resume is pretty impressive.
NBA champion (2016)
4× NBA All-Star (2013–2015, 2017)
NBA All-Star Game MVP (2014)
All-NBA Third Team (2015)
NBA Rookie of the Year (2012)
NBA All-Rookie First Team (2012)
NBA Rising Stars Challenge MVP (2012)
NBA Three-Point Shootout champion (2013)
USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year (2014)
FIBA World Cup MVP (2014)
2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics (Gold Medal Winner)
2014 FIBA World Champion (Spain)
2010 FIBA Americas U18 Champion (Gold Medal Winner)
2010 McDonald's All-American
2010 Nike Hoop Summit All-American
2010 Jordan Brand High School All-American
2010 First-team Parade All-American
CAREER: 21.6 PPG, 5.5 APG, 3.5 RPG in 46% shooting, 38% 3 pt. shooting (6 seasons)
And of course, the game-winning shot over Steph Curry in NBA Finals, Game 7, on the road that gave Cleveland it's first title in FRANCHISE HISTORY (and first title in Cleveland after 52 years, breaking the Cleveland Sports Curse).
I'm not really sure that is all that impressive when you are talking about top level players. Just 1 All NBA Team and it was the 3rd team. The championships and things like that he was never his teams best player.
That feels like throwing shade. For a 25 year old, that is an impressive basketball resume.
It isn't the resume of a top 15 player though, which is sort of the point.
Resumes get built over time. Great players do enter the NBA with a strong resume, they more often than not need to build one through their prime, and beyond.
Please take a look at your top-15 NBA players and try to see what their resume looked like when they were 25, chances are they weren’t as good as Kyrie’s. And they were probably too-15 players at that age anyway.
we are talking about right now, but for the record, most of the current top 15 players had far better resumes at 25 than Irving does. That is what sets those guys apart from the all star level players (which Irving is).
Far better? That’s simply not true. I’d love to see your top 15 players
ESPN's top 10 at the beginning of the season were Green, Giannis, Harden, Paul, Davis, Westbrook, Curry, Leonard, Durant, James. Now you tell me, aside from Green (who was mich older as a rookie) which of those guys resumes are worse than Irving at 25 or the year he turned 26 (year 7 also)
Westbrook and Curry quite easily. Giannis and AD it's hard to tell, because, despite the likelihood (or lack thereof) they could win a ring this season - but Kyrie still has a better resume than both of them. LeBron, KD, Kawhi, Harden and CP3 are the only ones who are comfortably above him on that list resume wise (when they were 25)
Winning a ring when you aren't your team's best player isn't exactly a notch in the belt. It is nice, but if you can award that ring to one player it would go to Lebron.
Giannis is 23 and already has a 2nd Team All NBA and a 2nd Team All Defensive NBA. He also has a top 10 finish in MVP voting. It can be argued he already has a better resume and he still has 2+ years to go.
Westbrook before he turned 25 already had 3 All NBA 2nd Team appearances as well as MVP votes in two seasons (including a top 10). Thus he had far more recognition as a top 15 player than Irving did at a similar age.
Curry, like Green, was a much older rookie though he did have an All NBA 2nd Team and a 6th place finish in MVP voting (as well as an 11th place finish) when he was 25 or younger. He won his first MVP at 26 in his 6th year and was the best player on a title team that year as well (so less overall experience than Irving).
Davis isn't yet 25 and in year 6. He has a 5th and 9th place finish in MVP voting, two 1st Team All NBA and two 2nd Team All Defense, and like Irving also has an All Star Game MVP.