How Irving senior’s Aussie stint steeled his son Kyrie for the NBA Finals
Kyrie Irving was not only born in Australia, but his family’s ties with the nation run far deeper than just a place of birth for one of the NBA’s super stars, writes MATT LOGUE.
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Melbourne-born NBA star Kyrie Irving is blessed with ambidextrous skills – a gifted basketball trait he first witnessed on the bitterly cold courts in Bulleen during his father’s Australian SEABL stint with the Boomers in the early 1990s.
Drederick Irving regularly showcased his freakish ability to dribble with both hands for the Boomers as a baby Kyrie wrapped in cloth watched on from the stands.
Irving senior was equally calm under pressure, prompting Bulleen teammates to call him the “Ice man” after his favourite player – former San Antonio Spurs shooting guard George Gervin.
Kyrie was too young to soak in his father’s exploits as a two-month-old at the time, but the genetics and proceeding lessons were well and truly passed on.
According to Drederick’s former Bulleen teammate – ex-South East Melbourne Phoenix coach Simon Mitchell – you only have to watch Kyrie play to see that the apple hasn’t fallen far from his father’s tree.
Mitchell recalls watching Irving drop a buzzer beater to help Dallas to beat Denver back in March.
OH MY GOODNESS, KYRIE IRVING WINS THE GAME WITH A LEFT-HANDED FLOATER ‼ï¸
— NBA (@NBA) March 17, 2024
SPECIAL. 🤯#TissotBuzzerBeater#YourTimeDefinesYourGreatnesspic.twitter.com/NJiVbYtV7p
Kyrie secured the ball from an inbound pass before launching a left-handed hook floater to sink the shot with one second on the clock.
“I was sitting there and thinking, ‘holy s**t, that’s Drederick Irving,” Mitchell recalled.
“Kyrie was going left, then pulled up with his left hand to shoot over the top of Nikola Jokic.
“That was the type of s**t that his old man would do because he was ambidextrous. I remember we were playing away to Nunawading and Drederick showed amazing elevation to rise up over Jason Smith. Jase got a hand up to his shot, but midair Drederick changed his shot from his right to his left hand. He was still 18 feet from the basket, but he has just banked it in with a feather touch. It was just unbelievable.
“It reminded me so much of Kyrie’s matchwinning floater from 20 feet away – it was exactly the same shot as his dad’s playing for Bulleen decades earlier.”
Drederick Irving possessed the skill and athleticism to play in the NBL, and excel, but he opted to put family first and move back to America to support his wife Elizabeth.
He had enjoyed enormous success with Bulleen under head coach Brett Brown, a fellow Boston University graduate who went out of his way to lure Irving Down Under.
Drederick dominated with the Boomers, averaging 30 points a game. As Mitchell remembers, the crafty American often left the crowd speechless with his silky exploits.
“Drederick was really smooth, he had this incredible explosion but played at his own pace,” he said.
“He could have easily played NBL. He got a run with the Boston Celtics in the pre-season, but he was just too skinny to make the NBA.
“He just didn’t have that size. He had great height and length, but he was skinny. I reckon he could have been the equivalent of Lanard Copeland, in terms of his impact in Australia.”
Mitchell regularly visited Drederick in his hometown Bronx in New York.
The current South East Melbourne Phoenix GM of Basketball Operations was attending Boston University at the time and would often spend his break catching up with Irving senior.
Mitchell has fond memories of the day Drederick turned up to his gym in a suit after working on Wall Street all day as a financial broker.
“He was so happy to see me, so he came running over, took his shoes off and just took off from the bottom of the circle and threw down this tomahawk dunk,” he said.
“Everyone watched on in amazement at this guy in a suit dropping a dunk.
“He had been retired for a few years, but he is just a freak athlete.”
On Friday, Kyrie Irving will fittingly take on the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Irving’s dad has deep connections to Beantown as an Economics graduate at the University of Boston.
Drederick also enjoyed success on the basketball court, finishing his four year stint as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,931 points at 15.8 points per game.
As a result of his dad’s connection to the city, Kyrie also spent a lot of time in Boston as a kid while he later donned the Celtics uniform for two seasons between 2017 and 2019.
His time in Boston didn’t last and he left for Brooklyn before being traded to Dallas, setting up a blockbuster NBA Finals clash against his former franchise in the Celtics.
Kyrie’s dad Drederick will be proudly watching on from the stands as he aims to win a championship following his maiden title with Cleveland in 2016.
For Mitchell, Irving senior’s legacy also extends to his profound impact in Australia. Drederick enticed fellow Bronx product Jermaine Maybank to play in Australia.
Maybank’s nickname in the infamous Bronx pick-up games at Rucker Park was ‘Murder’ and his backcourt partner was none other than NBL great Corey ‘Homicide’ Williams.
Jermaine followed Drederick Irving’s lead and convinced Williams to come to Australia, where he would go on to become one of the Australian league’s most respected players and later commentators before passing away from cancer last month.
This Aussie hoops history hit Mitchell hard during Homicide’s recent funeral in Melbourne.
“Drederick came out here because of Brett Brown and that extended to Jermaine and then Corey – who went on to become a legend of the NBL,” he said.
“It just reminded me about the legacy of Drederick coming out here to Australia and now it continues through his son in the NBA.”
2024 NBA FINALS: Game 1 (Friday, June 7)
Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks at TD Garden, Boston from 10.30pm (AEST)
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Originally published as How Irving senior’s Aussie stint steeled his son Kyrie for the NBA Finals
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