Kevin Durant may have won MVP of the NBA Finals, but if we’re to believe his post-series comments, the best player on the court might have been Cavs point guard Kyrie Irving.
Durant, in a Wednesday interview with the Bill Simmons Podcast, lauded Irving for his play in the series, even going so far as to call him better than Hall of Famer Allen Iverson.
“Kyrie is better than AI to me,” Durant said. “I’m going from like skill for skill. His handle is better. We might have to cut that out — I don’t want no problems with AI. Y’all might have to cut that one. I don’t want that to get out. I’m just saying I feel like Kyrie got more skill.”
Despite Cleveland’s loss, Irving played well in the NBA Finals, shooting 47.2 percent, including 41.9 from 3-point land. He averaged 29.4 points per game, and only once scored fewer than 20 points (19 points in Game 2).
Still, saying Irving is better than one of the most prolific scorers in NBA history might be a stretch. But if you compare Iverson and Irving through the first six years of their careers, you’ll see the latter compares favorably.
Irving, 25, already has an NBA title (who could forget his go-ahead 3 in Game 7 last year?) and has been named to four All-Star teams, compared to Iverson’s three. And while Iverson has the edge in points, rebounds and assists per game, Irving has been a more efficient shooter: He has a 45.7 shooting percentage (compared to Iverson’s 44.5), has shot 38.3 percent from beyond the arc (compared to Iverson’s 31.8 percent) and has an effective shooting percentage of 51.2 (compared to Iverson’s 45.1).
Regardless of who’s actually better, Durant saw enough from Irving in the finals to warrant those comparisons.
“Kyrie just makes you happy,” Durant said of Irving’s play. “He makes you happy when you watch him play. You just smile when you watch him play, cause it’s like, for somebody to be that skilled, you know had to work tirelessly. The stuff he has in his package is next level stuff that, like, you can teach your kids how to do it, but you’ll never be able to do it.
“I’ve never seen anybody block his layup. He’s 6-2. I’ve never seen one person pin his layup on the glass. Not one. Cause like, the spin he got on it, and he don’t even have to look at it, it’s like, I got so much respect for him because I know how much work he put in to be that good. I’ve never seen anybody like him.”
