CLEVELAND: Kyrie Irving has a dazzling new look to go with his same sensational game. He’s also responsible for two banners now in downtown Cleveland.
Nike plastered the side of a building on East Fourth Street and Prospect with an image of Irving’s iconic 3-pointer to win Game 7 of the NBA Finals along with the slogan “TAKE YOUR SHOTS … I’LL TAKE MINE.” Irving’s family has seen the banner, but he hasn’t. For the record, it’s still not nearly as big as James’ 10-story banner that hangs across the street from Quicken Loans Arena.
“That’s fine,” Irving said in comparing banner sizes. “That’s completely fine.”
Irving picked up right where he left off against the Golden State Warriors, scoring 29 points in Tuesday’s win over the New York Knicks. He is playing freely these days and with the blessing of coach Tyronn Lue, who has continued to stress not to worry about assist numbers and distribution — a long-held criticism of Irving as a point guard.
Instead, Lue wants him to simply attack, something he has reiterated since taking over halfway through last season.
“Kyrie is unstoppable,” Lue said. “I don’t think one defender can guard him one-on-one. In the pick-and-roll, he’s unstoppable. He has no offensive weaknesses, so for this team to be successful, I need him to be a scorer and be in attack mode the whole time.”
Even after Irving struggled to make shots in the first half, Lue told him to keep shooting. He made 8-of-10 in the second half when the Cavs blew the game open.
“We need him to score the basketball. You see when he scores the basketball how the game just opens up and we’re able to take an 18- or 20-point lead because of his scoring ability,” Lue said. “We need him to be aggressive scoring the basketball.”
Irving was obviously a huge piece in the Cavs’ championship and banner-raising ceremony Tuesday night. After receiving his ring, Irving ran off the court and fought back tears while hugging his father, Drederick, who has been his rock since Kyrie’s mother died when he was only 4 years old. Irving has said he is giving his championship ring to his father for all that he has done. All of those moments came flooding back Tuesday.
“We just have a very, very unique relationship, which goes deeper than almost life itself,” Irving said. “Just a culmination of a lot of emotions as a kid kind of watching him sacrifice as much as possible to allow me to have the freedom to play basketball every single day, but also understanding how basketball correlates to life and vice versa. How he always related it back to me being an even better man every single day. It was a total 180 thinking how far we both have come. It’s just very, very, very fulfilling in terms of giving it to him and I’m glad he got it.”
Before Irving addressed reporters, he slipped on a crisp, white dress shirt, jacket and wool tie. It was perhaps the first time he wore a tie and jacket to a game since entering the league. Irving often wore ripped jeans and T-shirts to games, even on the podium after playoff games last season when he was often sitting next to James and Kevin Love in designer suits.
Irving said his sister, Asia, is dressing him these days and he likes the change. Asia posted a picture of her brother to her Instagram account last summer and thanked him for trusting her with his attire for the ESPYs.
“She’s my stylist,” Irving said. “I think she wants to see an evolution and I completely support her. I guess you can call it maturation, but my sister does all that good stuff and I’m thankful that I have her in my life. I’d rather be paying her than anyone else to buy all my clothes. This right here is a great look. Hopefully, we can see more of it going throughout the season.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.