Kyrie Irving is the one Brian Windhorst blames for splitting up three superteams.
Brian Windhorst criticized Kyrie Irving for his role in the collapse of three NBA superteams during his tenure.
Over the past ten years, Kyrie Irving has emerged as one of the NBA’s top talents. Despite the fact that he has never been a guard worthy of MVP honors, his thrilling style of play has won him admirers worldwide. Due to problems on every team he has played for over the past eight years, his success on the court has been restricted.
Brian Windhorst held Kyrie accountable for the collapse of three NBA superteams. LeBron James of the Cavaliers, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown of the Celtics, and Kevin Durant and James Harden of the Nets are a few examples of this.
“Kyrie Irving has made it routine to dismantle elite teams. He ended one in Cleveland, he ended one in Boston’s hopes, and he ended the largest collapse of a superteam in Brooklyn.
Despite the fact that Irving has maintained a low profile on the Mavericks throughout the season, Windhorst’s judgment of the player is harsh. Sadly, that doesn’t lessen the fact that Irving has a large portion of the blame for the failure to realize the full potential of any of those three teams.
In 2017, as he was coming into his own and tired of being LeBron’s little brother on the team, Irving quit the Cavaliers. He was able to lead his own squad while playing for the Celtics, but his brief career ended with the team’s run to the Conference Finals while Irving was sidelined. The team only advanced to the second round with Kyrie.
In a contentious move from Boston to Brooklyn, Irving assured Celtics supporters he would re-sign before going to the Nets with Kevin Durant. Despite the Nets’ injury problems, Kyrie chose to sit out half the 2021–22 season in protest of New York’s vaccination laws. James Harden became resentful of this and demanded a trade in 2022; as a result, both Durant and Irving were traded away by February 2023.
After being moved to the Dallas Mavericks last year, Irving is no longer a member of a legitimate contender team. Despite having perhaps the finest backcourt in the NBA in him and Luka Doncic, the team’s frontcourt weaknesses have left them as the eighth seed in the West after a 28-23 record. Although they don’t appear to be title contenders this year, they do appear better than they did last year.
Despite making a significant contribution to the team’s success, Irving has struggled with his health. Out of the 51 games the Mavericks have played this season, Irving has only appeared in 29 of them. In his 17-12 minutes on the court, he’s averaging 25.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 5.4 assists, helping the team to a 17-12 record. He recently guided the Mavericks to victories against the 76ers and Nets while scoring 59 points in a back-to-back road game.
Dallas needs Irving to be on the floor in order to even have a shot to make the playoffs, but without frontcourt reinforcements obtained before the trade deadline, Doncic and Irving won’t be able to go deep into the playoffs. The team is negotiating with players including Bobby Portis, Dorian Finney-Smith, Isaiah Stewart, PJ Washington, and Kyle Kuzma.
