He may not be the once-in-a-lifetime physical talent like LeBron James, but Kyrie Irving, the Cleveland Cavaliers selection at No. 1 overall in Thursday night's 2011 NBA Draft, certainly provides downtrodden Cavs fans with reason to be excited.
There's of course his ability on the court -- despite playing a grand total of 11 college games (including the three March Madness contests Irving return from injury to participate in), he was still widely considered to be the best player available in this year's draft. The fact that he's 19 years old is of course great. He'll have plenty of time to hone is game and adjust to the next level before coming even close to approaching his physical prime. Finally, he's mature. Spending a year with Mike Kryzyzewski at Duke undoubtedly helped him be the polished, humble young man that he's shown the world recently. But he also clearly just is an upstanding guy that isn't editing himself or preoccupied with image. At Thursday night's festivities in Newark, Irving showed up with one well-wisher and supporter, his father. No entourage, no posse, no business associates. Just his dad.
We'll have plenty of time to talk more about Irving and how he might be able to transform the Cavaliers back into a competitive contender soon enough. For now, let's first hear what Irving had to say about in his first press conference as an NBA player. We'll get to his first presser with the Cavs, which was conducted Friday back in Cleveland, soon enough.