Five years ago today, the NBA woke up to the fact that Melbourne-born Kyrie Irving was a realer deal than Andrew O’Keefe getting on the turps at Revs, as Son of Drederick came off dominating the 2013 NBA All-Star weekend and dropped 35 points — with 20 of ‘em coming in last 7 bloody minutes! — in a huge comeback Cleveland Cavaliers win over the helpless New Orleans Pelicans!
Look, granted Kyrie was being defended by Greivis Vasquez, which is about the same as being guarded by a busted petrol pump, but scoring 20 points in the final 7 minutes of the 4th quarter to lead an epic comeback win is no bloody joke in anyone’s book, even if Carl Barron and Hughesy went to the game and then co-wrote a book about it.
Anyway. Kyrie put the moves he learned from his dad Drederick (after packing ‘em in back in the early ‘90s in the notoriously tight shorts of the Bulleen Boomers) to good use, dancing around with the grace and speed of Steven Bradbury and making the Pelicans look like the New Orleans Bin Chickens.
Having just won the 3-point shootout, dominating the Rising Stars Challenge and making his first NBA All-Star appearance, Kyrie was hotter than a Tarneit tin roof, going 13-of-22 from the field (that’s 59.1% for those in the cheap seats), two of five 3-pointers, and more perfect than Kochie’s pearly whites (7-for-7) from the charity stripe.
Not only that, but Kyrie threw in 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals AND drew a charge on Robin Lopez to knock him out with his 6th foul for the same reason you go to a Toorak tailor: good bloody measure.
Sure, he had 4 turnovers and 1 foul, but stats are for nerds and anyway, Kyrie probably had another 8 assists that were SO full of that Bulleen dazzle they blinded the scorers.
Not bad for a young Melbourne lad coming off his debut All-Star appearance and only in his second year in the NBA! Reckon he’s doing all right for himself now though too…
#ONYA Kyrie
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