Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving can certainly get past any defender with his lightning quick speed, quick first step and when all else fails, one tremendous crossover dribble. Just ask Knicks’ Iman Shumpert who got humiliated by Irving and his crossover.
Poor Shumpert. I almost felt sad for him.
So after seeing that display of some crossover carnage, where did Kyrie learn it? Or more directly, who did he pattern that move from?
Well it seems Irving is a student of the game and patterned his crossover move off some of the great point guards in NBA history.
“When I was younger, I always wanted the AI Crossover,” Irving said from his ProCamp in Cleveland. “In elementary school that was the only move I had, was the Allen Iverson crossover. I probably practiced that crossover a million times.”
“I had the Timmy Hardaway too,” Irving told SLAM. “I practiced the Tim Hardaway move over a million times as well, along with the KJ (Kevin Johnson), which was just go by everybody with quickness. Over time, I combined all of them together, and made it into my own move.”
Not a bad group of guards Kyrie can learn from but he has definitely made the ankle-breaking move his own.
Moreover, one has to keep this in mind, he is just entering his second season and he is barely scratching his potential. Which should bring a smile to Cavs fans faces.
However, if there is one point guard from the NBA’s past he can definitely learn from is Isiah Thomas. No, not for Zeke’s front office blundering but how Thomas played on the court for the Pistons.
To see Irving develop a strong “killer instinct,” a deadly, yet consistent jump shot and floor leadership, Irving could one day hear his name being mentioned among future point guards looking to pattern their game off him.
