Kyrie Irving reflects on how difficult it was to deal with last season's off-the-court drama and where he's at now.
MIAMI, Fla. - During the 2013-14 season, Kyrie Irving's third year in the league, the then 21-year-old was averaging 20.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists.
For a while, the young Cavaliers were fighting for a playoff berth until their talent and chemistry caught up to them. On the surface, Irving had an impressive campaign, but the numbers don't always tell the true story.
"I'll just say that last year was a learning experience," Irving told Northeast Ohio Media Group in a lengthy sit-down interview.
This is an account of how Irving transformed his mental and physical makeup after enduring such a tumultuous year - setting the stage for a season that has seen him post a couple of 50-point games, score 22.0 points per game and shoot a career-high 42 percent on 3-pointers.
Last year was a season he would prefer to forget, one in which he didn't have much fun. It was a chaotic and problematic year for the point guard, not like one he had ever experienced. And unknowingly at the time, he initiated the conflict from the onset.
"Saying that I wanted to be the best player in the league at Media Day wasn't a good idea," he said. "I didn't realize how much pressure I was putting on myself and on my teammates."
With that type of faith and self-confidence comes expectations. His own words would be used against him when pundits came to the conclusion that he wasn't playing up to par. The verdict early on was that his game didn't match his bark, which led to stories bashing his commitment to be great and questioning if he had what it took.
It genuinely disturbed him.
"That was the first time it actually hit me," he said. "The attention that it got, I wasn't necessarily prepared for it and didn't know how to prepare for it. I was young. I'm still young, but that was a crazy position to put myself in. You can believe it and you can do it, but that's something I should have just kept to myself."
Reports of him being a bad teammate, not sharing the ball, having a beef with Dion Waiters and not wanting to remain in Cleveland when his contract was up all caused anguish for the three-time All-Star. It was too much to handle.
"It really got to me," Irving said. "I'm not a big Twitter person and I don't Tweet a lot of my emotions, but last year I was clarifying because there were so many sources," he said. "I'm dealing with people coming at my character. Saying I'm detrimental to my teammates and I'm like, 'Man, that's not even close to who I am at all.'
"It started to get to me because once people start to question the things that you're doing, and you know you're not doing them, then it starts to get to you."
After the season, he took about three weeks off from basketball to clear his mind and recharge. He was drained. All he wanted to do was play basketball, but he found out that in a business such as the NBA, it's not all about dribbling a ball.
"You can tell that all of it bothered him," Tristan Thompson said. "We saw it and tried to help. That was a crazy year. All types of things were being said or reported."
Sometimes things are out of your control and you're not aware who's for you and who's against you. But Irving would get a shot at the closest thing to purity at the highest level of basketball: playing for his country.
After signing his five-year extension with the Cavaliers, he was looking forward to writing a new chapter, starting with playing for Team USA in the World Basketball Championships. Competing among the best players in the world and reuniting with coach Mike Krzyzewski was the first step.
He averaged 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 24.4 minutes per game to help lead Team USA to a 9-0 record and a gold medal in Bilbao, Barcelona, and Madrid, Spain. For his efforts, he was awarded the 2014 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
Irving was at a comfort level. It was all about basketball, but most importantly about winning and sacrificing. He proved that he could do both. Suddenly, he was able to put last season in the rear-view mirror.
"It gave me the platform for me to mature and to be with other great players," Irving said. "But also at the same time, have the confidence in myself to go out there and be who I am and to be who I wanted to be. I did that and it was kind of easy coming into this season."
Which brings us to now.
Irving is on a tear. He has scored 90 points in the last two games and is 32-of-47 from the field and 11-of-12 from downtown in that span. He has arguably been the Cavaliers' most consistent player from the start of the season to now.
Those who speculated that his game wouldn't mesh well with LeBron James have some rethinking to do. No matter the adjustment or the assignment, Irving has continued to display his versatility in doing whatever it takes to put his team in the best possible position to succeed.
Before the season even began, he knew he was ready for this Big Three era.
"Everybody was putting pressure on what me and 'Bron were going to do," Irving said. "How was I going to have to adjust? How was I going to have to be a more pure point guard? Be this, be that. How me and K-Love were going to have to give ourselves up to the team.
"For me, I was just like God blessed me with a lot of talent that I'm thankful for and I really worked my tail off to have that ability to be one of the best players on any floor at any given time. That's just the confidence that I have in myself."
Irving is a student of the game. The film room is a second home. Reading about the greats that have come before him is a treasure for the kid. He's soaked up the art form and has a better understanding of what it takes to elevate his game.
Even though he admitted that he shouldn't have said what he said at Media Day 2014, the point he was trying to make was that he wanted to be one of the greatest. And he was challenging himself to back it up by going public with it.
Now he's keeping his list of goals close to the vest. He figures what he doesn't tell the media can't be thrown in his face down the road.
As for the naysayers who ridiculed him for not being a team player and a bad locker room guy, well, he's not overly concerned about them.
"My sole reason for me playing this game has never been for attention, it's never been for approval. The only thing I command is respect," Irving said. "I just let the proof be in the pudding. I don't say I'm going to do something; I just go out and do it and then I feel like it just ends up hitting them in the face when it actually happens because they're like, 'Well we said this about him but he completely did the opposite and did it way more than we expected.'
"I have a confidence in myself that whether you like me or not, I really don't care because I'm going to command your respect, especially out there on the floor where you can't deny me. I was that guy on the cusp trying to fight my way up and I still am. I still feel that way. I'm always going to have that attitude, but in terms of what everybody else thinks, I really don't care."
For what he went through last year, Irving said he has developed tougher skin and is better prepared for negative reports. However, with that new, tough skin comes a wall. It's a protective covering that keeps people from entering his small circle. He's never been the open type in the first place, but he's much more secluded.
In the meantime, he's sticking to the script. After all, it has gotten him this far.
"As long as I'm doing my due diligence and that's representing my family well in the community, impacting the youth as best I can and inspiring my younger generation - anything else, I'm not worried about," he said.
"What really goes on in my life, that's why I keep it guarded. Because when they really find out, it's like a huge surprise. 'Oh he did that?' I like to keep it that way because I don't know where their motives are. All they see is me as a product that they're just using to propel themselves to wherever. My focus is basketball and that's it."
