Kyrie Irving joins former coach Mike Krzyzewski on US Olympic team
Kyrie Irving, who spent one year at Duke before beginning his NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been named to the 12-man U.S. Olympic basketball team that will compete in Rio de Janeiro. It will be Irving’s first Olympic Games.
Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski is plenty familiar with Irving, the point guard he recruited to Duke for the 2010-11 season. Irving flashed enormous potential but only played eight regular-season games before injuring his big right toe in a Dec. 4 game against Butler. The injury sidelined him until the NCAA tournament, when he returned for three games. Irving averaged 17.5 points in the 11 games he played for Duke in his lone year, which ended with a Sweet 16 loss to Arizona.
Irving was the No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA Draft. He was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 2012, was an All-NBA third team pick in 2015 and is a three-time NBA all star. Earlier this month, he helped LeBron James lead the Cavaliers to the 2016 NBA title. Irving averaged 25.2 points and 4.7 assists in the playoffs and sank the go-ahead 3-pointer to give Cleveland a 92-89 lead with less than a minute remaining in the Game 7 win over Golden State.
Irving has previously played with the men’s national team under Krzyzewski. He was named the MVP of the 2014 FIBA World Cup as Team USA went 9-0 record to win the gold medal. Irving was also named the 2014 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.
Irving is the sixth former Duke player to represent the U.S. in an Olympic Games, joining Jeff Mullins (1964), Tate Armstrong (1976), Christian Laettner (1992), Grant Hill (1996) and Carlos Boozer (2004 and 2008).
Krzyzewski took over the men’s national team in 2006 and has led the squad to a 52-1 record, winning the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship, 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2010 FIBA World Championship, 2012 London Olympics and the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
The 2016 Summer Olympic Games run from Aug. 5-21. Men’s basketball preliminary play runs from Aug. 6-15. The quarterfinals will be played Aug. 17, the semifinals Aug. 19 and the gold and bronze medal games Aug. 21.
This story was originally published June 27, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Kyrie Irving joins former coach Mike Krzyzewski on US Olympic team."