Kyrie Irving says he was close to playing for Team Australia
By Andre Pruitt
Kyrie Irving says he came close to playing for Team Australia instead of the United States.
Team USA Basketball has looked mostly dominant so far in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. During all of their exhibitions and first two games of pool play, Team USA dismantled the competition, winning by 40 points or more each time. Though that all changed yesterday.
Team Australia played the USA basketball team tougher than most expected. In fact, yesterday against Team Australia was the first time that Team USA has trailed at halftime since the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Team USA would go on to win the game 98-88 after pivotal 4th quarter scoring outbursts from Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving.
Irving, one of the two players vital in helping Team USA seal the victory, was close to competing for Team Australia’s basketball team back when he was a teenager, which would’ve made him ineligible for Team USA. It was Team USA’s Mike Krzyzewski convinced Irving not to join Team Australia back when was 17-years-old
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“It was very serious. It was a legit thing, until Coach K intervened,” Irving stated, via Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. “He strong-armed me. As a young fella, he did tell me I had a chance to be a part of something bigger than myself. He said, ‘You could be the starting point guard on the U.S. Olympic team.’ I never thought it would happen as soon as it has, but I had aspirations and dreams of being a guard on an Olympic team.”
Even at the age of 17, Coach K could already envision Kyrie making an impact on Team USA. Ultimately, it was what swayed Irving to join Team USA and Coach K’s vision has come true for Kyrie this year in Rio.