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Many feel the era of the superteam in the NBA is now over, and one reason may be that such teams had a limited amount of success.
While LeBron James’ Miami Heat won back-to-back world championships, recent history is littered with other superteams that just couldn’t go all the way for one reason or another.
Kyrie Irving played on at least one legitimate superteam, and perhaps he has had a hand in the end of the superteam era, as Brian Windhorst pointed out.
Windhorst said that not only did Irving break up as many as three superteams, but that Irving has “normalized” breaking up such squads, per ClutchPoints.
“[Kyrie Irving] has normalized breaking up superteams. He broke one up in Cleveland, he broke one up in Boston, and he broke up the biggest flop of one in Brooklyn,” Windhorst said on ESPN.
“[Kyrie Irving] has normalized breaking up super teams. He broke one up in Cleveland, he broke one up in Boston, and he broke up the biggest flop of one in Brooklyn.”
— Brian Windhorst 😂
(via @ESPNNBA)pic.twitter.com/zgFMFuuWIe
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) February 6, 2024
Irving was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2011, a year after James left to go to Miami, and when James returned in 2014, the two reached the NBA Finals in each of their three seasons together while winning it all in 2016.
But right after losing the 2017 championship to the Golden State Warriors, Irving demanded a trade and was sent to the Boston Celtics.
At the time, Cleveland had something close to a superteam with Irving, James, and multi-time All-Star Kevin Love, but Irving’s departure started the destruction of that squad.
In Boston, he teamed with a young Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, but his time there was dismal, and at times, it seemed they were better off without him.
Of course, with the Brooklyn Nets, Irving was supposed to deliver at least one ring along with Kevin Durant and James Harden.
But that team never even got to the Eastern Conference Finals, and all three asked to be traded soon afterward.
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