Kyrie Irving of the Brooklyn Nets in the game against the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 15, 2020.
Kyrie Irving spoke again. After resting for nearly two months Irving returned in Monday's game where the Brooklyn Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers 117-111 at home. His poor performance and attitude also drew criticism. Now that Irving is deciding to rest again, voices questioning his leadership are only growing.
However, this time, Irving did not want to remain silent. In fact, he decided to hit back.
"When I was out for those seven weeks and not saying anything people are still saying things about me. It's inevitable. They crucified Martin Luther King for speaking about peace and social integration. You can go back to historical leaders and great people in society that do great things, and they're still going to talk sh** about them. It is what it is," said Irving to reporters on Martin Luther King Day.
Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets tries to break through the defense of Eric Bledsoe #6 of the Milwaukke Bucks in the game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, January 18, 2020.
This is not the first time Irving has argued with others about whether he is a good leader, and people have good reasons to question him. One year after winning the NBA championship with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016, Irving said in public that he did not want to play with James and asked the team to trade him. However, the two years with the Boston Celtics did not help: the team almost made the NBA Finals without him, and in the next year were knocked out by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round even after Irving played all five games.
Now that he's with Brooklyn, the team again is doing better when Irving's not on the court. What does this say about Irving's leadership abilities?
Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball in the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, January 18, 2020.
Before we answer that question, we need to look at what kind of player Irving is. 1.88-meter-tall point guard, top 3 isolation player in today's NBA, he has historic dribble skills and a complete offensive player. Irving is willing to pass, but he prefers to finish rather than orchestrating. He is not a first-class defender, but can be reliable defending similar-size players one-on-one.
Simply speaking, Irving is more of a scorer than an orchestrator, more like an assassin rather than commander.
That cleared things up. What has been upsetting Irving has also been a headache for a lot of top scorers in history: they could do a lot of things for their teammates, especially on offense, but there's not much they could do to help teammates get better.
Many players belong to this category: Kevin Durant, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony…
Kyrie Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets shoots the ball in the game against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, January 18, 2020.
Irving has his own problems. He is too small to play any other position than point guard. Besides, his offense relies more on shooting and making layups after dodging defense, meaning that he poses limited threat to the opponents' rim and does not cause enough damage on defense.
What players like Irving need the most is an established, well-operating system in which they can focus on doing what they do the best: score. Durant won two straight championships after he made himself part of the Golden State Warriors' give-and-go system. Nowitzki won his ring after joining hand with Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler. Anthony played conference finals only once in his career, under the help of Chauncy Billups on the Denver Nuggets.
LeBron James #23 and Kyrie Irving #11 of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4 of the NBA playoffs against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan, April 24, 2016.
Irving is no stranger to such experience. His career peaked in 2016 because James was in charge of orchestrating the team's offense and Irving could score to his heart's content.
However, Irving wants to be the leader of a team. So was there any small guard who could both focus on scoring and lead a team?
The answer is yes and his name is Allen Iverson. As a shooting guard even shorter than Irving, Iverson was not reliable in 3-point shooting. His passing was not necessarily better than Irving's.
Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts in the game against the Toronto Raptors at the First Union Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2001.
Nonetheless, back in 2001, Iverson as the only scorer of the Philadelphia 76ers, became the scoring champion, steals leader and the season's MVP. Furthermore, he put up the greatest individual playoff performance and carried his team out of the East before defeating the unpatrolled Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
How did Iverson do it? The team had Eric Snow, an old-school point guard responsible for orchestrating. George Lynch would defend the opponents' perimeter ace. Dikembe Mutombo stood in the paint, rejecting all invaders. Iverson's job was simple, destroy the opponents' defense with his scoring ability that won him four scoring championships.
Based on what the 76ers prepared for Iverson, perhaps Irving should join the Toronto Raptors.