Last week the internet basically exploded when Chad Ford casually mentioned that Kyrie Irving has been privately clamoring to get out of Cleveland. This week, we have another interesting bit of insight regarding Kyrie Irving from Chad Ford. In one of his articles on ESPN.com (insider only), Ford wrote about the various potential lottery picks for the upcoming 2014 NBA Draft.
When Ford got to writing about Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis, he had a pretty interesting quote from an NBA GM.
"If you were to ask me right now whether I'd take Ennis over Kyrie Irving, I think it's Ennis," one GM said. "He does all the things that help a basketball team win basketball games. You can pick him apart on individual flaws, but I would take this kid right now and trust him to run my team. I think there's very few freshmen you could ever say that about."
Um, what?
I don't doubt that somebody said that, I just don't know what sane person would have that opinion right now. Are we sure it was an NBA GM? Was it the GM of a fantasy college basketball team? Was it the GM of a team in NBA 2k14 after you sim like 6 seasons and we're now talking about this comparison in the summer of 2019? Was it an employee at General Motors? General Mills? Was it the Governor of Montana?
I think this pretty clearly marks the point where the Kyrie Irving criticism went too far. This is a 21-year old point guard who is already a two-time all star. He has some flaws, but to say you'd rather have a mildly exciting point guard prospect over a guy who has proved that he can be very very effective in the NBA is a little bit nuts.