The Growing Legend Of Uncle Drew

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving is coming into his own as a superstar, both on and off of the court. The legend of Uncle Drew is growing.

Kyrie Irving is the type of point guard that could lure a king from a palace in paradise to an ice-cold throne in his homeland. That’s how it happened for the Cleveland Cavaliers anyways.

Very few people know that LeBron James has known Irving since the latter was a freshman in high school and doing things like this:

In Irving’s lone college season, one in which he only played 11 games as he sat out with a toe injury, James talked to Irving every week according to Tom Reed, a former beat writer for the Plain Dealer. Even in Irving’s rookie season, James kept in contact with the young point guard (and Tristan Thompson, who considers James to be like a brother and was picked 4th overall in the 2010 NBA Draft).

According to Tom Reed, James had this to say about he and the then-rookie’s relationship:

"“We talk a lot. Right now he’s learning on the fly being a rookie. But he has veterans around him” — James cited Anderson Varejao, Antawn Jamison, Daniel Gibson and Anthony Parker — “and all those guys help him out.”"

For his part, despite only playing 11 games in college, Irving showed that his numbers and his skillset could translate from the collegiate to the pro level.

In his freshman season at Duke University, Irving averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. He shot 52.9 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from three-point range. He also knocked in 90.1 percent of his free-throw attempts.

Then, in his rookie campaign, one in which he was stepping into James’ role as the face of the franchise whether he wanted to or not, Irving averaged 18.5 points, 5.4 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. He shot 46.9 percent from the field, 39.9 percent from three-point range and 87.2 percent from the free-throw line.

That performance led him to win the 2010-2011 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year, making him the second member of the Cleveland Cavaliers to do so (joining James).

Irving earned 592 voting points out of the 600 possible to win the award, leaving players like Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker and Ricky Rubio in the dust in Rookie of the Year voting.

In sum, Irving averaged 20.7 points, 5.8 assists, 3.7 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game on 44.7 percent shooting from the field and 37.8 percent from three-point range and 86.2 percent from the free-throw line in his first three seasons.

Though the Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t playoff contenders, they consistently won more and more games each year despite criticism that the team wasn’t winning enough. In Irving’s rookie season, the Cavs won 21 games. They won 24 games the following season. In the 2013-2014 season, the Cavs won 33 games. This despite injuries to reliable veterans in Anderson Varejao, Luol Deng and Spencer Hawes that led them to play in half the available games.

That type of sensationalism from the face of the franchise, in addition to a team that was getting better and better while fighting through adversity, made the Cleveland Cavaliers a franchise James could see himself returning to.

According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, early in the 2013-2014 season James said “They’ve got some really good pieces here. We’ll see what happens” when asked about a potential return to Cleveland.

Irving was the cause for the sparkle in James’ eye when talking about the Cleveland Cavaliers. Irving, who was dubbed Uncle Drew after Pepsi launched an ad campaign starring him as an elderly streetballer named “Uncle Drew”. This is the first episode:

An ode to Irving’s old soul perhaps and Irving’s middle name, “Andrew”, Irving’s first major marketing and branding took place before James’ return. He made a name for himself. James’ return simply accelerated his superstardom.

Despite his affection for the fans, James’ career is about what defines his legacy. Rings. Without the possibility of winning multiple championships in a return, there’s no returning to Cleveland. Not while James was in his prime anyways.

Yet, Irving proved that he was a player that could be his sidekick for the foreseeable future. With Dwyane Wade’s rapid decline in health and thus, production, and Chris Bosh’s inability to stay on the floor, one could see the writing was on the wall for the Miami Heat following their final NBA Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

For anyone that watched James take off his jersey in the tunnel after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2010 Eastern Conference semifinals, they knew what was going to come next. James’ departure.

Eventually, James began his tour in search of a new home. Along the way, the Cleveland Cavaliers extended Irving’s contract and earned the King’s attention. Irving, for his part, gave James a holler himself.

In the growing legend of Uncle Drew, this was a defining moment. For the moment James returned, all spotlight was on the duo. It didn’t matter really whether their third banana was Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Love, two players with a fair bit of notoriety themselves.

Cleveland belonged to King James and The Kid. Having just won the MVP award for his performance in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup, the world was watching Irving as much as they were paying attention to James.

It wasn’t instantly that Irving and James’ chemistry on the court began to resemble that of James and Wade’s. Irving often felt the need to prove himself on the court with James watching it seemed and James was frustrated with the way the team, including Irving, played. To him, it was too much hero ball and not enough of playing the right way.

That’s why Dion Waiters was eventually traded. That’s why, after a loss to the Utah Jazz early in the 2014-2015 season, one in which Irving scored 34 points but didn’t record a single assist, James relayed this message to his young point guard.

"“He came up to me and was like, ‘One, you can never have another game with no assists,’ ” Irving said, describing James’ words. ” ‘You can damn near have just one, two, three, but you can’t have zero.’ And I was like, ‘All right, cool, it won’t happen again.’ And it hasn’t happened since that game.”"

Irving listened.

Since then, Drew’s legacy has been unimpeded by anything but an injury he suffered in the 2015 playoffs. His play for the last two seasons has been sensational. Even though it took him some time to get in the groove of the 2015-2016 season, Irving lifted off in the playoffs and provided quite a few spectacular moments.

In one of the picture perfect NBA moments, fans who felt like all James needed was Irving in the 2015 NBA Finals were treated to the sight of James and Irving dominating in the 2016 NBA Finals. Irving outplayed Stephen Curry, who was just named the first unanimous NBA MVP. Then, after a legendary Game 5 and spectacular Game 6, Irving hit the shot heard ’round the world.

A shot so clutch, so important, it virtually erased any Cleveland Cavaliers fans memory of the previous “The Shot”.  The one that Michael Jordan hit over Craig Ehlo to end a Bulls-Cavaliers playoff series in the first round after five games.

A shot so important that the Cavs do things like this to celebrate the moment.

Irving, whose self-proclaimed nickname is “The Ankletaker”, feels vindicated now that he’s proven himself on the NBA’s biggest stage. Irving, who is as much an apprentice of Kobe Bryant as James, now sees himself as an alpha male who is simply learning from the best player in the world according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

For the record, “The Ankletaker” is one of the best nicknames I’ve heard. For the past year, the Cavs have seemed like avid WWE fans and after winning the 2016 NBA Finals, Kevin Love and James wore shirts paying homage to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and “The Ultimate Warrior”. Love even had a WWE World Championship belt.

This season, Irving has been a superstar on and off-the-court. According to ESPN’s Darrell Rovell, his Uncle Drew series is set to become a full-fledged motion picture and he’ll be starring in it. On Uninterrupted’s Road Trippin’ Podcast, he made headlines for saying, and believing, that the Earth is flat. Not afraid of controversy, he also said that he wasn’t a big fan of the critically acclaimed motion picture “Get Out”.

You also how to hear Irving’s description of a lucid dream he had involving Jordan McRae, one of his good friends who was cut by the Cleveland Cavaliers last month.

On the court, Irving has improved as a passer in the sense that he actively tries to impact the game as a facilitator every game. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Irving said he’s watched videos of Wade and Mo Williams to see ways they used to set up James for easy baskets. Irving has always been a sensational ball-handler but after reading this article from The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears, it seems to be the case that he’s universally acknowledged as having the best handles in the game.

In a 2013 article from the NBPA’s senior multimedia writer Jared Zwerling (formerly of Bleacher Report), this is what Irving had to say about his ball-handling ability:

"“What I want (fans) to realize is that when I make a move, it’s really a simple move,” he said. “It’s just done with pace, and it’s done off a counter of something. I only do those moves when someone kind of puts me in that position. When someone makes me feel uncomfortable, I’ll always have a change of pace or have a change of direction to kind of keep them off balance. They can only guess, so you’re in control. That’s what offensive guys need to remember.”"

As a scorer, there are little nuggets that show how Irving ranks among all-time greats.

Gems like this:

Or this:

Gilbert Arenas is the only player on that list who certainly won’t be in the Hall of Fame and those reasons are far from talent-related. Amar’e Stoudemire may have trouble making it to the Hall of Fame as well after injuries left him as a shell of himself in the latter part of his career. Nonetheless, only three names appear on both of these lists.

Kevin Durant, James and Irving.

That’s great company to be with as a scorer, especially considering the efficiency and volume with which Durant and James score. Considering that both Durant and James are the best players on the two best teams in the NBA, Irving’s place among the duo gives hope to those that believe Irving can and will have to eventually take over as the Cleveland Cavaliers face of the franchise.

This season, Irving is averaging a career-high 25.5 points per game, along with 5.8 assists. He’s doing this while shooting 47.4 percent from the field, 39.3 percent from three-point range and 90.5 percent from the three-point line.

There’s no sign that he’s slowing down heading into the playoffs either.

Irving is everything James and the NBA hoped he would be, if not more. If he wasn’t, we wouldn’t have images of this floating around social media.

In the ever-growing legend of Uncle Drew, the NBA has been treated to one of the most sensational players of all-time. The unconscious killer to match James’ cold calculation.

Cleveland, the future of the franchise is in great hands.

Related Story: Kyrie Irving Has Elevated His Game This Season

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