Cleveland Sports Forum

Pluto:

About the Cavaliers...

1. Mike Wallace of ESPN's Heat Index on LeBron James toying with a return to Cleveland: "He should see a Cavaliers franchise that's just starting to regain its balance and feel-good footing with No. 1 pick Kyrie Irving as the clear face of the future. LeBron should know that interjecting himself into any aspect of that future -- even the possibility -- is borderline disrespectful to both the franchise his decision left in shambles as well as to his current employer, to which he's promised to deliver multiple cases of championship champagne."

2. What I'm hearing from fans is they like this team. They love Irving. As Justin Anthony posted on my Facebook page: "Right now the Cavs have a budding superstar who is unafraid of the big moment. And [Anderson] Varejao is a superstar in his own right. Don't need LeBron taking away from how exciting this team has been."

3. Yes, the Cavs have a losing record, but Irving has them looking forward. As Michael Enio Cassandra posted: "I hate even talking LeBron, considering how much I love this team. They are scrappy, exciting and have a real future."

4. James' scorched-earth exit is perfect for General Manager Chris Grant and Coach Byron Scott. They can help the team rise from the 26-game losing streak and the 19-63 record of last season to a young team with flaws, but also with a likeable star rookie and a no-nonsense veteran coach. Gary Zabukovec emailed about Irving's "guts, determination, desire" along with his willingness to pass. Other fans have told me how they enjoy Irving not dominating the ball and stopping the flow of the offense.

5. Scott is very upbeat. He told me about how he has to remind himself that Irving is only 19 and Tristan Thompson is 20. In his playing days, those kids were still in college. He wants Thompson to concentrate on rebounding and defense. In a sense, it's "play like Andy," a phrase that Scott sometimes uses with his team. Thompson is allowed to give the ball up to a teammate, even if the stats don't confirm it -- four assists in 373 minutes, are you kidding?

6. Scott on Varejao being out for 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist: "There aren't five guys who play as hard as he does ... maybe not even two."

7. Big men are like pitchers in baseball, teams want a lot of them -- and good ones are rare in a league increasingly ruled by point guards and wing players. There is Dwight Howard ... then who, in terms of great centers?

8. Most teams are playing 6-10 power forwards such as Varejao at center. Quick, who played center for the champion Dallas Mavericks last season? It was Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood, solid big men but not future Hall of Famers. The Heat start 6-9 Joel Anthony in the middle. That's why the Cavs are intrigued with Semih Erden. If he even becomes a 15-minute player, the 7-footer from Turkey is very valuable.

9. Remember the Delonte West deal with Minnesota? After all the pieces landed, the Cavs have Ramon Sessions, Ryan Hollins and Erden to show for it. Varejao's injury is a tremendous opportunity not only for Erden, but for Samardo Samuels and Thompson to receive extra minutes.

10. The Cavs talked about bringing up Manny Harris from Canton, but Scott likes Irving and Sessions playing together in the backcourt -- and they want to look at Ben Uzoh during this time when Daniel Gibson and Anthony Parker are hurt. Alonzo Gee starts at shooting guard, but then can slip to small forward when the Cavs play their two point men together. Harris scored 46 in a recent game and is averaging 20.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and shooting 46 percent in the D-League. He could be recalled if Sessions is traded.

SamAmicoFSO Sam Amico
In case you missed it ... Lakers likely to "accelerate" pursuit of Cavs' Ramon Sessions over All-Star break, says Western Conference source.

Kyrie is much better then anyone thought he was going to be. Already is one of the best 4th quarter players in the NBA at age 19. Just think if he had some quality shooters around him.

JJ, starting to think that 2 teams at most may catch the Cavs.

Maybe Harris can help. I saw the Cavs signed him to a 10-day contract. I know its just the D-League but he has been averaging 20+ points a game there. Fun to watch the highlights of last nights game. Gee and Irving alone willed the Cavs to a win. Good stuff!!!

Cali:

I disagree with you & Mayweather on Lin. I think any player who puts up the kind of record breaking numbers in New York that Lin has would get alot of attention, regardless of color.

I also think he will continue to do well as long as he and D'Antoni are together. Point guards have always done well in his system.

Bingo HB. Couldn't agree more. He put the NY team on his back, and put them into contention.

He also enabled D'Antoni to run his usual system, which they couldn't with the previous personnel.

Of course he is going to get huge publicity. NY is a huge NBA town. You could totally make the argument that the Knicks are as important as any pro franchise to fans in NY, even the Yankees. They love basketball.

I saw that the Knicks vs Dallas game got a rating of 5 last Sunday. That's bigger than playoff baseball.

By the way, great win by the Cavs last night. Detroit had been playing well, and were in control of that game most of the way.

Again shows their character, and IMO shows the quality of coach Byron Scott.

I still believe if Lin is on a small market team like Kyrie, he does not get all this publicity. Guess I'm just sick and tired of the NY mystique. Never liked NY, never will. All the "LeBron to NY" for two years didn't help!

LinBron... you say!!!

Jeremy Lin Sets NBA Record - Linsanity!

Jeremy Lin broke an NBA record set by Shaquille O'Neal set in 1992 for most points scored in a players first five games. Lin's performance against the Timberwolves, which included a final second shot to win the game that added three points to his overall 27 for the game, put his point total after the first five games of his NBA career at 136. Shaq's previously set the record at 129.

OK, that deserves some attention. That covers a LOT of players.

Kyrie may turn out to be the better player of course, but he hasn't done anything THAT freakish. Not to mention Kyrie is a highly touted draft pick.

Lin was a total scrub, out of nowhere. And he scored those points, won those games, and dished those assists. And the Knicks went from dead in the water to contenders overnight.

Hard to top that story.

Kyrie is only 19 and has more game winners than most rookies his age, just saying. Kyrie has taken the Cavs from the basement to playoff contenders. I guess I have my "I hate NY blinders" on...LOL

A Father Dedicated to Helping His Son:
The son swears the father saw it all coming.

Kyrie Irving ticks off the milestones as if they were fresh produce on a weekly grocery list.

"In eighth grade," Irving said, "my father told me I would wind up as the best guard in the state of New Jersey. In my senior year of high school, he told me I'd be the number one player in the country. Then, in college, he told me I'd be the number one pick in the draft.

"He laid out all the necessary steps for me. It was up to me what I did with them."

Irving continues to cement his role as the young cornerstone of the Cleveland Cavaliers, leading all NBA rookies in scoring with 18.1 points a game. (He also dishes out 5.1 assists).

He will be a member of Team Chuck in Friday's NBA Rising Stars game, the second player selected after Clippers sensation Blake Griffin.

"I thank my father," Irving said. "He did things the old-school way. No shortcuts. Nothing guaranteed."

The father swears it was the son who saw it all coming, who wrote down "GOAL: PLAY IN THE NBA" on a slip of paper when he was in the fourth grade and pulled it out whenever someone doubted that a spindly high school freshman barely 5-foot-8 could ever make it to the pros.

Drederick Irving was Kyrie's measuring stick. Each summer he'd line up against the mark in their home, recording his father's 6-foot-4 frame.

"I want to be bigger than you," Kyrie told his dad.

"You will be," his father promised.

He had reason to believe that was true. After Drederick's dreams of an NBA career were snuffed out by a failed tryout with the Celtics, he played in New York's Pro Am league, gliding up and down the asphalt courts exuding grace in an otherwise hardscrabble game.

Kyrie was only a toddler in a stroller, yet his bright eyes followed the action, followed his father. Afterward, when released from the constraints of his perch, Kyrie would clamor for the ball, dribbling with one hand, his steady gaze fixed on Drederick.

He was 13 months old.

"And I have the footage to prove it," Drederick said.

He brought the boy everywhere, but then, what choice did he have? When Kyrie was 4 and his sister, Asia, was 5, their mother, Elizabeth, died suddenly, leaving Drederick to care for two confused, heartbroken children. His own grief needed to be tucked away during the hectic daylight hours of raising two active kids. Only when they were tucked in safely was Drederick free to sob himself quietly to sleep.

He wanted more for his children than he had. As one of six children growing up in the Mitchel housing projects in the Bronx, N.Y., Drederick saw too much too soon. He was a child on welfare whose father abandoned him when he was 6, whose mother, Lillian, worked two jobs to keep the family afloat. Drugs and crime and guns were everyday obstacles, and Drederick recognized education and basketball would be his escape.

"I consider myself a good man," Drederick once told Kyrie, "but I want you to be a better one."

Drederick moved his small children to New Jersey and enrolled them in private school, but he brought them back regularly to the Mitchel projects.

"I was there almost every weekend," Kyrie said. "I got to be in the same environment my dad was in. I was basically a kid playing on a jungle gym in the projects."

Eight months before 9/11 he changed jobs, accepting a position with Garvan Securities on the 40th floor of the same building.

"I was there three weeks and I didn't like it," Drederick said. "I can't really explain it. I just had a bad feeling in my stomach about it."

He moved to Thomson Reuters at 3 Financial Square but walked through the World Trade Center building each morning from the train station.

On the morning of 9/11, he was striding through the lobby of the twin towers when a thunderous noise knocked him backward.

"I thought the boiler exploded," Drederick said. "The boom was so loud, the force of wind so powerful. There was shattered glass everywhere."

Within seconds, chaos ensued: collapsing walls, screaming people, suffocating smoke.

"All I could think of was, 'I've got to get to my kids,'" Drederick said.

He pushed his way to the exit, but there was a logjam at the door. People were frightened to leave the building because so much debris was falling from the sky.

"I stuck my head out and tried to see, but I couldn't tell what it was," he said. "Pieces of the building, pieces of the plane, a lot of paper ..."

He dashed across the street, dodging chunks of steel, then began frantically dialing his friends at Cantor Fitzgerald. He tried his former boss, his former secretary, a slew of buddies with whom he shared his hopes, his dreams, his proud stories of his children's accomplishments. Nobody picked up. He glanced up at the building, at the flames licking the top floors, at the smoke engulfing the towers.

"I was standing there watching the debris fall from the sky, and then I realized, 'That's not debris. Those are bodies,'" Drederick said.

"It has taken me years to get that image out of my mind. I still have dreams about 9/11, to be honest. It was a horrible day. I lost so many friends."

Drederick knew he needed to move away from the towers, which quickly became choked with dust and death and despair. His cell phone was useless and the roads were blocked. For a moment, panic took hold. What if he didn't make it? Who would take care of his children?

Ten-year old Kyrie and 11-year-old Asia were at school when the 9/11 attacks began. Kyrie sat quietly as one parent after another, their faces ashen, burst into the building and gathered their children in their arms.

"There were a bunch of teachers crying, a bunch of them leaving the classroom," Kyrie said. "No one knew what was going on.

"Everyone else left with their parents. My sister and I had to wait until school got out."

The babysitter was waiting for them at home, transfixed by the horror unfolding on the television. The solemn reports did little to soothe two terrified siblings who just wanted to throw their arms around their dad.

Drederick could not reach them. Phone lines were down, the trains were grounded, so he began walking toward his old neighborhood.

"I was afraid Asia and Kyrie would think I still worked for Cantor Fitzgerald," he said. "You don't know if kids that young pay attention when you change jobs."

"I don't know why my father would say that," Kyrie said. "I knew exactly where he worked. I also knew he had to pass through the twin towers every day.

"I was worried. Really worried."

Drederick walked nine miles from Wall Street to 137th street and Alexander Avenue in the Bronx, a journey that took more than six hours. He was able to reach his friend Larry Romaine, who drove to Drederick's home to assure his children he was alive and safe.

"I told my children there was a guardian angel looking over me," Drederick said. "How else can you explain it?"

That horrific day haunted him for years. As his children grew, Drederick became even more hands-on, stressing academics and encouraging athletics. He coached Kyrie until the eighth grade, impressed by his young son's poise and resolve.

When Kyrie reached high school, Drederick enrolled him at Montclair Kimberley Academy. After Kyrie led his team to a state prep championship, it became apparent he needed better basketball competition, so he completed his final two years at St. Patrick's in Elizabeth, N.J., where he also won a title.

By then, nearly every college in the country wanted him.

It was so vastly different from Drederick's basketball experience, which often left him overshadowed, first by his close friend Rod Strickland, who would later star in the NBA and become Kyrie's godfather, then later by his Stevenson High School teammates, who seemed to play a little more, score a little more, shine a little brighter.

Drederick drew initial interest from UConn, James Madison and Boston University, but when it came time to pass out scholarships, no one came calling.

It wasn't until BU lost a recruit that head coach John Kuester and assistant Rodney Johnson decided to take one more trip to the Mitchel projects to see what the Irving kid had decided.

Their fine car and their long trench coats set off alarms. Drederick was not a troublemaker, but the dudes that came asking for him sure looked like cops.

"Hey, can you tell me where we can find Dred Irving?" Kuester asked.

"Aw, he's dead, man," his neighborhood friend answered.

"Oh, how terrible," Kuester said. "We're from Boston University and we came to offer him a scholarship."

"A scholarship? Yeah, he lives right down there, two doors over," the boy said.

Drederick Irving went on to score 1,931 career points for the Terriers. His one NCAA appearance was a lopsided loss to Duke, which, more than 20 years later, came knocking for Kyrie.

The son inked with the Blue Devils, was limited to 11 games his freshman year after a toe injury and still became the top choice in last spring's draft. Kyrie went pro with the caveat that he'd complete his Duke degree in five years.

"He's halfway there," Drederick reported. "He gave me his word."

Kyrie claims the transition to the NBA has been seamless, devoid of pressure. Because he was born in Melbourne, Australia, while his father played professionally for the Bullen Bombers, Kyrie could compete in the 2012 Olympic Games for Australia. He'd rather play for the U.S., but so far he hasn't been asked.

His father figures that could change.

"This whole thing is a fairy tale," Drederick said. "Kyrie always hoped to play in the NBA, just as I did.

"He made it, so I feel like I've made it, too."

Kyrie will be 20 on March 23, but his steady gaze remains fixed on the man who devoted his life to his son.

"If you are fortunate to have a father like I have," he said, "you're given a foundation. You can be content with that, or take it and run with it, like I did.

"My father is the one who told me to want more. My father is the one who told me not to settle."

Drederick has remarried and has a new daughter, London. He beams when he talks of Asia, who is thriving as a junior at Temple University.

He commutes back and forth from New Jersey to Cleveland to make sure his son is comfortable, and safe, and will be in Orlando, Fla., to watch Kyrie perform during All-Star Weekend. It is an exhausting schedule, but Drederick won't hear of changing it.

Last time Kyrie came home to West Orange, N.J., he shimmied up to the wall, which showed him at 6-foot-3½, still short of his father's mark.

The son swears he will never reach the heights his father has.

The father swears Kyrie Irving accomplished that a long time ago.

MVP of the rising stars game. Not bad...... Did it shooting 3's like Boobie Gibson when he drives like D Wade in his youth.

Watch out Cleveland. You have another top 10 NBA basketball player.

and he's now flying under the radar with all the popular attention on Lin. Knicks and Cavs meet next week don't they? Irving will get one night of national attention and then go back to developing into one of the best players of the next decade.

LeBron James says Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving has 'Hall, uh, All-Star' potential
Published: Saturday, February 25, 2012, 12:57 PM Updated: Saturday, February 25, 2012, 2:01 PM
By Tom Reed, The Plain Dealer



ORLANDO -- It was a slip of the tongue, but LeBron James just decided to roll with it while gushing about Kyrie Irving's performance in the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night.

"He was amazing," James said of the 34-point effort and 12-of-13 shooting night. "He proved why he was supposed to be in that game, he proved why he’s a future Hall, uh, All-Star.

"If he keeps on progressing as he is now, he’ll be a future Hall of Famer as well."

Irving, who earned Most Valuable Player honors, converted all eight of his 3-point shots. While defense is non-existent in these games, eight straight 3-point shots is still a special showing.

Keep in mind, James likes to be loved and he's been effusive in his praise of everyone this weekend. But the two-time league MVP is not alone in his strong support of Irving and the start to his career.

While not all the All-Stars watched Friday's game, most have caught Kyrie Irving's regular-season act and the testimonials continue to flow.

"He has a great feel for the game, tremendous skills, good athlete, really confident," Phoenix point guard Steve Nash said. "I think he's on his way."

Added San Antonio's Tony Parker: He's fearless, very aggressive and he's playing pretty well for Cleveland and they have been winning some games."

The Rising Stars Challenge, televised on TNT, drew its highest ratings in the event's 18-year history, according to Turner Sports, surpassing the 2004 event which included James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade. The two highest-rated markets were Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Cleveland/Akron.

Irving will take part in the skills competition Saturday night on TNT.