Cleveland Cavaliers: Kyrie Irving Delivered For LeBron James In 2015-16

Kyrie Irving, when no one thought he could, delivered for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers when they needed him most

It’s been over a week since Kyrie Irving proved his skill-set is championship worthy and that he’s an ideal compliment to LeBron James. It took seven games, a historic performance, lots of will and a historic comeback from a 3-1 series deficit to end the 52-year championship absence for the city of Cleveland.

Since the beginning of the 2014-15 season, many were skeptical as to how Irving would adjust with James. Why? Mainly because James has been a primary ball-handler since he entered the league back in ’03.

Having the ball in James’ hand creates playmaking opportunities and mismatches, because the entire defense if paying attention to the guy who’s built like he’s suppose to be in the NFL.

As for Irving, he’s a primary ball handler with a score-first mentality. He’s a modern day point guard, but his talents were looked as being a sin when it came to teaming up with the four-time MVP.

More from Sir Charles In Charge

Throughout their trek to glory, pundits and fans would always bicker as to how the pairing of the two couldn’t work. Irving wasn’t going to play akin to James’ old mate, Dwyane Wade. Irving wasn’t an off-ball player that could slash to the hoop or curl off a screen like Wade. His weapon of mass destruction were his slick handles that got him the nickname “Uncle Drew.”

So many people would continue to excoriate Irving and his play-style by saying it’s impossible to win with him. There were complaints about him not distributing the ball a bevy of times to his teammates and that he took too many shots.

Critics thought he was all about himself because he’s 24-years-old and wanted to establish himself even more as an elite player in the NBA.

In just one month, Irving proved to everyone it’s possible to climb to the proverbial NBA mountain with him on the team. No, he’s not a pass-first player and probably won’t be until the later stages in his career. Real quick, think about this though: how many guards in the NBA have the thought process to distribute immediately? Not many. Stephen Curry wasn’t really like that during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 season, and he won two MVP’s and made two Finals appearances in that span.

He was showcasing his emotion like never before, coupled with toughness and heart that the national audience was never really accustomed to seeing from him

On the biggest stage of them all, in which players mostly dream about competing in, Irving capitalized and statistically speaking became James’ best partner in The Finals. Not only that, but he outplayed Curry by a landslide.

At the conclusion of the seven-game series, Irving finished averaging 27.1 points per contest with a slash line of .468/.405/.939. To take in everything he was putting out, you had to have watched him in all the games, win or loss. He was showcasing his emotion like never before, coupled with toughness and heart that the national audience was never really accustomed to seeing from him.

Yes, he averaged 3.9 assists per game in the series and 4.7 during the regular-season. What should his assist numbers be if he’s playing with someone like James, who is a better option to put teammates in positions to score.

Are the assist numbers of Irving the why people wanted him dealt for Chris Paul earlier this season? Incase you aren’t a big follower of the NBA rumor mill, it was thrown out there that a deal headlining the two stars would make sense.

How? Well, it was thought that James needed to play with someone that passed first and scored second. There was also that reason as to how James wanted to play with one of his best friends in Paul and that Irving playing for the Clippers would add to the team allure than Paul.

James might be closer to Paul than he is Irving, but he’s known Irving since he was a high school student in New Jersey. Also, if Irving was that big of an issue, then general manager David Griffin would’ve made a move immediately. He didn’t need to, because everything was over analyzed and speculated when the team struggled.

It also doesn’t hurt that his interaction with James is in the realm of a brother-type relationship, and that James finds it easy to speak highly of Irving, just watch his speech on him during the Cavs parade.

Add Cavaliers general manager David Griffin to the Irving adulation parade.

"“And so I expect you’re going to see better play from Kyrie Irving, who I think took a huge jump both as an individual talent and a winner throughout these playoffs,” Griffin told ESPN’s Marc Stein."

From his body language to his skills, and even personal life, everything has been hyperbole about Irving. His superstar status is growing, but what’s established about him is that he’s a big-time player who makes big-time plays.

If you need him to takeover a game, sure, go look at Game 5 of The Finals. Need him to take and make the biggest shot of his NBA career in the closing seconds of a Game 7, say no more, he’ll deliver.

"“That moment right there happened, and I was like ‘ok, I’m fine’” Irving told reporters after Game 7 on his game-winning shot. “And all I was thinking about in the back of my mind was Mamba mentality. Just Mamba mentality, that’s all I was thinking.”"

Irving is a bad, bad, bad man. Getting nervous and shying away from a big moment is foreign to him.

The 2016 Finals, along with the entire playoffs, was a coronation for Irving. Up next for him, winning an Olympic gold medal for Team USA in Rio. NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist in the same summer?

Now that sounds special. He could Michael Jordan, (’92), Scottie Pippen (’92 and ’96) and James (’12) as the only players to accomplish such a feat.

must read: Predicting Where The Top 30 Free Agents Will Land

Goodbye to the vile comments on Irving, hello to all the praise. It’s always interesting to see how winning can cure, deviate and change the public perception of players. Irving’s just one example, just wonder who’ll be next.