NBA Player Profile - Kyrie Irving

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Name: Kyrie Irving

Team: Cleveland Cavaliers

Position: Point Guard

NBA Statistics: 14.1 (points), 5.3 (assists), 3.9 (rebounds)

Background: Though not an award-studded career, Kyrie Irving is already exhibiting what many established professionals have developed over time, and that is sheer resilience and will power.

These are among the qualities he impressed the scouts with during the NBA draft training camp that catapulted him to being selected as the top draft pick of the 2011-2012 rookies.

Kyrie was born in Australia on March 23, 1992, but moved to New Jersey in the United States with his family at the age of two. Irving spent two years of high school playing for the Montclair Kimberley Academy, where he became only the second player from the school to score over 1,000 points while averaging 26.5 points, 10.3 assists and 4.8 rebounds per game.

To say his college career was short-lived would be an understatement. After committing to Duke from as early as 2009, Kyrie began playing for Duke in the 2010-2011 season where he averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds over an 11 game-span, missing close to three months of basketball due to injury.

Kyrie decided to forgo his final three years of eligibility to declare himself for the coming draft, but not before he had to come to an agreement with his father that he would take summer classes and finish his bachelor's degree.

Certainly that decision seems to have paid dividends as he is already and integral member of the Cavaliers, the game that selected him as the top overall draft pick.

Though his accolades are not many to date, Kyrie does have the prestige of being a gold medal winner of the FIBA Americas U-18 Championship.