Well, the paths of the two players are far from identical. One guy, born on another continent (Irving, actually), left a major college basketball powerhouse and became the number one overall pick of in the NBA draft for a mid-market franchise. The other went to an Ivy League school and was undrafted, bounced around, and eventually landed in New York City after being claimed off waivers.
But it was at about this time one year ago that the basketball world became enamored with “Linsanity”, as second-year point guard Jeremy Lin set the NBA on fire with a series of riveting performances, leading the fledgling Knicks on a seven-game winning streak.
Of course, no “series of riveting performances” would be complete without some late game heroics— and Lin provided that on Valentine’s Day 2012 in a game at the Air Canada Centre against the Raptors. Lin walked down Jose Calderon and stuck a dagger, head-on three in his face with 0.5 seconds remaining, to give New York a 90-87 lead. The Knicks would win as Jeremy Lin finished with 27 points and 11 assists.
This season, second-year Cleveland Cavalier point guard Kyrie Irving is dismantling the rest of the NBA in similar fashion, albeit with much less fanfare.
Currently, Irving is in the midst of the best stretch of his young and promising career. During the month of January, the 2012 Rookie of the Year is averaging 26.7 points, 5.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game. He’s also shooting a remarkable .492 from the field, .433 from three-point range and .915 from the stripe this month. His seven 30+ point games in January are matched only by Kevin Durant in “The Association”. And like his now Houston Rocket counterpart, he too had a little something in store for the Toronto fans.
Down two in the final seconds last night, Irving, who has struggled against the Raps in his career, walked down Alan Anderson and drilled a head-on three-pointer with .07 seconds left that was cooler than Freddie Jackson sippin’ a milkshake in a snowstorm. The Cavs would hang on for their third straight W, as Uncle Drew would end the night with 32 points and five assists. Does this not look similar to Lin’s shot last year?
Sidebar: S/O to Morgan Freeman on that Pepsi Max cameo.
Irving is averaging 35.6 ppg in his last three outings, and if that weren’t enough, he was recently named Cleveland Pro Athlete of the Year and was named to his first All-Star game this week as a reserve.
Let that be a lesson to you: Good things will happen in life…if you get buckets.