Kyrie Irving

He has written, directed, and acted in a number of advertisements as “Uncle Drew”, which became a feature film in 2018. He has starred as himself in Kickin’ It (2012) and has done voicework in We Bare Bears (2016) and Family Guy (2018).Kyrie Andrew Irving  ’Little Mountain’; born March 23, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was named the Rookie of the Year after being selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. An eight-time All-Star and three-time member of the All-NBA Team, he won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016. Irving is widely considered one of the best ball handlers of all time.

Kyrie Irving

Irving played one year of college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils before joining the Cavaliers in 2011. He won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for the 2014 All-Star Game. In the 2016 NBA Finals, Irving made the championship-winning three-point field goal to complete the Cavaliers’ historic comeback over the Golden State Warriors. After another Finals appearance in 2017, Irving requested a trade and was dealt to the Boston Celtics. He played with the Celtics for two seasons, after which he signed with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent in 2019.

After four seasons with the Nets, Irving requested a trade and was dealt to the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, where he reached his fourth NBA Finals with the team in 2024. He has also played for the United States national team, with which he won gold at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. In February 2020, he was elected as one of the seven vice-presidents of the National Basketball Players Association, replacing Pau Gasol. Irving’s decision not to get vaccinated for COVID-19 led to him missing the majority of the 2021–2022 NBA season.

Throughout his career, Irving has promoted numerous conspiracy theories. Some of these conspiracies, including tweeting a link to the movie Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America, have been characterized as antisemitic. For a time prior, Irving promoted a theory that the Earth is flat, which he later recanted. He has written, directed, and acted in a number of advertisements as “Uncle Drew”, which became a feature film in 2018. He has starred as himself in Kickin’ It (2012) and has done voicework in We Bare Bears (2016) and Family Guy (2018).

Early Life

Irving was born into an athletic family. His parents met at Boston University, where his father, Drederick Irving, played basketball and his mother, Elizabeth Ann Larson Irving, was on the basketball and volleyball teams. Basketball brought the family to Australia, where Drederick Irving was playing guard for the Bulleen Boomers of the South East Australian Basketball League when Kyrie Irving was born in Melbourne. They returned to the U.S. about two years later, and the younger Irving soon took up basketball.

He excelled as a high-school player, helping his team win a state championship during his junior year, and was recruited to play under legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke University. However, his college career was cut short because of a nagging toe injury, and he played only 11 games for the Blue Devils, during the 2010–11 season. Nevertheless, Irving demonstrated enough promise to enter the 2011 NBA draft, and on June 23 he was selected number one overall by the Cavaliers.

His mother, who was African American and Lakota, died of an illness when he was four, and Drederick raised him along with the help of Irving’s aunts. In 2004, Irving’s father remarried, to Shetellia Riley, who is currently Kyrie Irving’s agent.

Irving grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, where he frequently attended his father’s adult-league games. His inspiration to play in the NBA came after playing at Continental Airlines Arena during a school trip in fourth grade, when he declared, “I will play in the NBA, I promise. “Due to his father’s connection to Boston University, Irving spent a lot of time in Boston, including at BU’s basketball skills camp. Irving said that in fifth grade, he was offered a scholarship to Boston University by then-head coach Dennis Wolff. As a teenager, Irving played for the Road Runners of the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).

High School Career

Irving played for Montclair Kimberley Academy in his freshman and sophomore years in high school. He averaged 26.5 points, 10.3 assists, 4.8 rebounds, and 3.6 steals and became only the second 1,000 point scorer in the school’s history. In his sophomore year, he led MKA to its first New Jersey Prep ‘B’ state title. After that year, he transferred to St. Patrick High School because he felt he needed a bigger challenge. He had to sit out the first 30 days of St. Patrick’s season due to the transfer. At St. Patrick, Irving played with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who was widely regarded as one of the best players in the class of 2011.

In his first season, Irving averaged 17.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game, and led the team to its third New Jersey Tournament of Champions title in four years. In August 2009, he led the USA East to the tournament title in the Nike Global Challenge. He was the MVP with 21.3 points and 4.3 assists per game. The next year, St. Patrick was banned from the state tournament for holding practice prior to the permitted start of the winter sports season. St. Patrick went 24–3 and won the Union County Tournament championship as he finished his senior year with 24.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.

College Career

Irving committed to Duke on October 22, 2009, in a television broadcast on Enquiring played with the Blue Devils during the 2010–2011 basketball season under the guidance of head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Through the first eight games of the season, he averaged 17.4 points per game on 53.2% shooting, 5.1 assists, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. Irving was a strong contender for NCAA Freshman of the Year until he suffered an injury to his right big toe during the ninth game of the season. On March 17, the day before Duke played Hampton in the first round of the NCAA tournament, he returned for his first game since his injury. Duke advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament but fell to Arizona. Irving scored 28 points in what turned out to be his last game for Duke.

Success with the Cleveland Cavaliers

In his rookie season Irving averaged 18.5 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per game, earning him the Rookie of the Year award and serious praise from the sports world. During the next two seasons he produced fine individual performances and was voted to the Eastern Conference All-Star team, but the Cavs struggled and finished with losing records both years. Fortunes reversed dramatically for Irving and the Cavs when LeBron James returned to his home state to sign with the team in the summer of 2014.

The dynamic pairing of James, at the height of his prime, and the young phenom Irving quickly vaulted the team to the upper ranks of the league. After the 2014–15 regular season, the Cavaliers made it to the NBA finals, where they faced the ascendant Golden State Warriors, led by star guard Stephen Curry. Irving fractured his kneecap in the first game of the best-of-seven series, and the shorthanded Cavs went on to lose, two games to four.

Irving missed the first 24 games of the 82-game 2015–16 season while recovering from surgery to repair his kneecap. But he shined upon his return and helped propel the Cavaliers back to the playoffs, during which he averaged 25.2 points and 4.7 assists per game. In the NBA finals, the team again faced the Warriors, which had finished the regular season with the best record in NBA history. With the series tied 3–3 and the title on the line, in game seven Irving hit a long three-point shot over Curry with 53 seconds left to play, and the Cavaliers held on to win their first championship in franchise history. That summer Irving, who maintains dual Australian and American citizenship, won a gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games playing for the U.S. men’s basketball team.

Turmoil in Boston and New York

The trade inaugurated a tumultuous period for Irving both professionally and personally. In Boston, surrounded by mostly younger teammates, Irving was unquestionably the top player, but he did not have success with his new franchise. The Celtics had a promising 16–2 start to the 2017–18 season, but Irving’s season was cut short by an ankle injury. The following season was marked by inconsistent play and infighting, and, amid speculation that he would not re-sign with the team, Irving’s relationship with fans and the media became increasingly combative.

Irving later explained that the death of his grandfather in October 2018 had contributed to these difficulties, saying that after the loss “basketball was the last thing on my mind.” In the 2019 playoffs Irving did not perform to his usual standards, logging career playoff lows in shooting percentage, and the Celtics lost in the second round. In the offseason Irving signed with the Brooklyn Nets, where he was joined by superstars Durant and, later, James Harden.

Personal Life

Irving enjoys reading and has a journal. He also likes to sing, dance, and play the baritone sax. His godfather is former NBA player Rod Strickland. His cousin, Isaiah Briscoe, is a professional basketball player who played at the University of Kentucky and played one season in the NBA for the Orlando Magic. Irving and his ex-girlfriend have a daughter.

In May 2011, Irving made a promise to his father to finish his bachelor’s degree at Duke within five years. However, in 2016, having not achieved his degree, he claimed he was putting his plans on hold, stating, “when I leave the game of basketball, then I’ll focus on the next step of my life”. In 2015, he launched his PSD Underwear collection.

Irving has been with Marlene Wilkerson since 2018 and the couple have two sons together.

In August 2018, Irving and his older sister were honored with a “welcome home” ceremony at Standing Rock Indian Reservation, acknowledging their family ties to the community, and in gratitude for Irving’s activism on behalf of the water protectors at the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Irving’s mother was known to the tribe, though she was “adopted out” at a young age, and their late grandmother and great-grandparents also had ties to the reservation community. Since then, he has continued to honor his Lakota heritage through donations to the tribe, designing Nike shoes dedicated to the Lakota people, as well as burning sage before every game. In 2021, his petition for citizenship was granted and he became an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

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