Kyrie Irving: One and done to No. 1

A gold medal summer and two NCAA exhibitions brought Irving to this moment: the first regular-season game of his college career. No. 1 Duke, the utterly loaded defending national champions, faced Princeton in the opening round of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic. Irving was 18 years, 7 months and 22 days old when he became the first freshman to start at point guard for Krzyzewski’s squad since the aforementioned Williams in 1999. Also, for the first time in his tenure at Duke, Coach K allowed the coveted No. 1 jersey to be worn. “He could handle it,” says Krzyzewski of Irving’s uniform number. “It put something on him that he needed. He wanted that lead role, and that was a way of him saying that.”

Princeton’s first two offensive trips resulted in changes of possession forced by Irving: a block on a shot attempt and a steal on a crosscourt skip pass.

At the 17:59 mark of the opening period, a referee whistled Irving for his second foul in two minutes, sending him to the bench, where he’d sit for most the half. Irving made the most of that little taste of adversity, finishing with an efficient performance despite logging just 19 minutes. Yet for two players on that Miami roster, it felt like Irving played the full 40.

A 30-minute drive separates where Mike Venezia grew up in Westfield, New Jersey, from Irving’s hometown of West Orange. But because he’s a few years older, Venezia had never gone against the phenom before 2010. One of Venezia’s close friends, though, had played at St. Patrick High School with Irving. And that friend delivered an unofficial scouting report before the game.

This game featured league-bound veteran talent, including Duke’s Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler and Marquette’s Jimmy Butler. Yet Cavs scouts in attendance were eyeing Irving. “We were locked in on him pretty early,” says David Griffin, who was the Cavs’ vice president of basketball operations at the time. Griffin also notes that at least one member of the organization would attend every game, and most practices, that Irving played in as a freshman.

Irving notched his fourth straight game in double digits but ended up with just 11 points. And though he recorded seven assists, Marquette forced the freshman point guard into five turnovers — more than he had in his first three games combined.

Inside Kansas State’s film room, the coaching staff popped in a tape: No. 1 Duke. Footage of Blue Devils — from Smith to Singler, and Mason and Miles Plumlee — appeared. Head coach Frank Martin went over their strengths and weaknesses. When it came time to break down Irving — silence. “With Kyrie,” Martin remembers, “there were no weaknesses.” Coach assigned Jacob Pullen, his senior preseason first-team All-American, the task of slowing down Duke’s freshman point guard on both sides of the ball. The night before the game, Kansas State’s Shane Southwell and Rodney McGruder got a knock on their hotel room door. It was Irving. He and Southwell had known each other since they were preteens.

Pullen made only one shot that night on 12 attempts and turned the ball over four times. Irving finished the game with 17 points and was named the tournament’s MVP.

Singler vs. Singler. That’s how Duke’s trip to Portland was billed: the first college on-court college meeting between Duke’s senior star Singler, and his younger brother, E.J. Singler, a sophomore for the home-state Ducks. Kyle Singler went for 30, and E.J. Singler for 14, in front of dad, Ed, and mom, Kris, who wore a custom half-Duke, half-Oregon shirt to the game. The undercard of the matchup was just as compelling: Irving’s trash talk vs. everybody.

Back at Duke’s Schwartz-Butters Athletic Center, ESPN rolled on a training room television. As Irving and Mason Plumlee watched the screen, analysts discussed which player, in college basketball, was the early candidate for national player of the year: Brigham Young’s Jimmer Fredette and UConn’s Kemba Walker. There was no mention of Irving, even though he’d averaged a respectable 14.5 points through his first six games. Krzyzewski had given Irving the keys to his Porsche of a program, and he’d been cruising. Yet, in the same time frame, Fredette put up 25 a game and Walker a monster 30 a night, both as seniors. As the analysts debated, Irving delivered his own take: “I could do that.” Per Plumlee, Kyrie uttered this more matter-of-factly than arrogantly. “When he said that,” Plumlee says, “I thought to myself, ‘If this kid wanted to go out and average 30, he could. No problem.’ ” The next game, with Coach K’s 900th career win on the line, No. 1 Duke faced No. 6 Michigan State in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

With the performance, Irving became the first Duke freshman since J.J. Redick in 2003 to score 30 or more points in a game.

Eight games into his college career, Irving returned home, where the stage couldn’t have been bigger. The No. 1 and undefeated Duke Blue Devils vs. Butler in a rematch of the previous season’s national championship. The game took place at East Rutherford, New Jersey’s, Izod Center, 15 miles from St. Patrick. “My whole family was there,” says Irving, “and I didn’t want to disappoint them.” He had a quiet first half with just four points and zero assists in a game tied at 33 at halftime. Coach K dug into his point guard, who emerged from the locker room as a different beast en route to a 17-point second half. But with 4:12 left in the game, it happened — a play barely anyone can remember, because at the time, it seemed like nothing at all.

No whistle was blown for a foul on the play. Just a 30-second official injury timeout. While Potter and the team’s trainer, Jose Fonseca, attended to Irving’s toe, 1:26 elapsed off the game clock. Irving checked back in at the scorer’s table, returned to the floor and played another 1:44.

The day after beating Butler, sustained pain in Irving’s foot led to further evaluation on his right big toe: X-rays and MRIs. Duke ruled the point guard out indefinitely. Months later, Irving revealed that he’d been born with an extra sesamoid bone in his right big toe, one more than he has in his left, and the impact of Howard stepping on his foot tore connective ligaments. The presentation of the injury was unlike anything Duke’s medical staff had seen, so they called around for opinions on how to approach recovery. Nick Potter and Jose Fonseca drove Irving to Charlotte to meet with Bob Anderson, one of the most renowned foot specialists in sports medicine. Irving chose the no-surgery route because he wanted to play again that season. But Coach K had his doubts. “I never thought he’d make it back,” he says now. As for the Cavs? “None of us thought at the time he was going to try to be in the draft.”

“I ended up being on that wing and then misstepped.”Kyrie Irving

Irving’s foot was encased in a cast on 10 to 15 separate occasions. His cast would be removed once, or sometimes twice, a week to allow for manual therapy so his foot could be mobilized and so its soft tissue could remain elastic. As his teammates practiced on the court, Irving spent two hours every day with Potter, participating in everything from hip and core strength exercises to pool workouts, and all the way up to weight-bearing movement. When he wasn’t in a cast, he wore a walking boot or a carbon fiber shank in his shoe to decrease stress on his toe.

“It was s—ty,” Irving says of his rehab. “You have to do things that are abnormal … while knowing that there’s a goal at hand — and that was to get back on the floor.” Bradley, Saint Louis, Elon, UNC-Greensboro, Miami (home and away), Alabama-Birmingham, Maryland (home, away and ACC tournament), Florida State, Virginia (home and away), North Carolina State (home and away), Wake Forest, Boston College, St. John’s, UNC (home, away and ACC tournament), Georgia Tech, Temple, Virginia Tech (away and ACC tournament) and Clemson — for each one of these games, Irving sat on the sideline in street clothes and observed.

“I think the biggest lesson Kyrie learned was when he wasn’t playing,” says Jay Williams. “It forced him to see the game from a different perspective.”

First came 5-on-0 drills. One-on-one turned into 3-on-3 and, although he didn’t play, Irving warmed up on the court with his teammates before Duke’s 75-58 win over North Carolina in the ACC tournament championship on March 12, 2011. “There’s a possibility of it happening,” Irving said after the game. “I can’t put a percentage on it.” The day before Duke squared off with Hampton University in the opening round of the Big Dance, Coach K confirmed to reporters that Irving would come off the bench and play limited minutes.

Irving checked in at the first half’s 15:19 mark.

Irving had seemingly recovered. But playing two games in less than 48 hours? His body couldn’t handle the quick turnaround, but this is what he signed up for. A matchup against Michigan was the only thing that separated the Blue Devils from a spot in the Sweet 16, and Irving from a chance to extend his freshman season a little bit longer. Win or lose, the game would mark his final time playing in North Carolina in a Duke uniform.

Irving didn’t have a single basket in his first 20 minutes. Yet, with 1:02 left in the game and Duke down 70-69, Coach K gave the ball to his starting point guard.

The basketball gods couldn’t have written a better chapter to this saga. Arizona vs. Duke in the Sweet 16 meant Derrick Williams vs. Kyrie Irving, the two most heralded NBA prospects in college basketball. Both were in the conversation for the No. 1 pick. In the mind of Irving, who turned 19 the day before the game, the implications of the matchup had to set off sirens.

Irving scored 28 points off the bench but was outdueled by Williams, who dropped 32 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, as Arizona ended Duke’s run at back-to-back national titles. It was the eleventh and final game of Irving’s college career.

Irving leaned on the advice of his father as he contemplated whether to return to Duke for his sophomore season or to make the jump to the NBA. “It’s a little unfair for you to be at Duke right now,” the elder Irving told his son. “You’re around your teammates, you still feel the energy, you feel like you still owe them a piece of you.”

Kyrie says now, “I was definitely considering staying. That was a strong feeling. … I wanted to stay, truth be told.”

Coach K doesn’t remember the specifics of the conversation, but he knows he was realistic. “I wouldn’t let him come back. He needed to go.”

Irving flew home to New Jersey and weighed his options with his family, and on April 6, 2011, he announced he would enter his name in the NBA draft.

A month after Irving declared, the Cleveland Cavaliers were presented with the top overall selection (a pick that wasn’t even originally theirs) at the annual NBA draft lottery. How would Cleveland use it? “I would’ve been stunned,” Griffin says, “if we didn’t take Kyrie.” Cleveland would choose between Irving and Derrick Williams.

These interviews have been edited for clarity and length.