Kyrie Irving is learning how hard it is to lead a team to the NBA Finals

Kyrie Irving is learning the hard way on how difficult it is to win big in the NBA

Kyrie Irving is a great NBA basketball player who can pretty much do it all from shooting, taking it to the basketball to having arguably the best handles in the game.

In 2017, he arrived in Boston to play for the Boston Celtics after a lot of controversial headlines of him wanting out of Cleveland and wanting to get away from LeBron James or at least out from under his shadow.

In Cleveland, Irving was a great basketball player who helped lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA championship with a 3-point shot that will be talked about for ages.

To outsiders, he had a great thing going in Cleveland. Look at his accomplishments with the Cavaliers, a championship, three-straight Finals appearances, named to the All-Star team four times, named NBA All-Star game MVP, Rookie of the Year and a third team All-NBA award.

The only thing that was missing from his resume was an MVP of the league and a first team All-NBA award, which is not all that surprising considering how many good players are in the league.

The surprising part is the fact that Irving has never made second team All-NBA and only had one third team All-NBA award in Cleveland. So, to a point, one can argue that playing with James did hurt some of his individual accomplishments.

NBA players are judged by championships, MVP’s and All-NBA teams. Irving only having one third team All-NBA award leaves a huge dent in his Hall of Fame resume, which could have been one of the reasons he wanted to get way from James.

Irving wanted a new start and a chance to lead a team. The Celtics, a young up-and-coming team seemed to be the perfect place for Irving. After his first season, where his new team took James and the Cavs to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals with him sitting on the bench because of an injury, the Celtics making it to the NBA Finals this season with James in the Western Conference seemed almost certain if Irving stayed healthy come playoff time.

Well, Irving stayed healthy and was great in the first round of the playoffs. He was also great in the first game against the Milwaukee Bucks as he finished the game with 26 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds on 12-21 shooting from the field in the Celtics 112-90 victory.

Since Game 1, though, Irving is averaging 20.3 points and 6.6 assists on 19-62 (31%) shooting from the field. To say Irving is struggling would be an understatement.

Not only is he struggling from the field, but he is also struggling to prove he can lead a team as the Celtics are facing elimination in Milwaukee after losing the last three games – inlcuding two at home – to the Bucks.

At the end of the day, Kyrie Irving wanted to prove that he could lead a team. Now he must face the criticism that comes with failure to lead a team full of talent past the second round of the playoffs. LeBron isn’t around to take the blame. Maybe, Kyrie will finally see how good he had it in Cleveland.