It still feels as though it just happened yesterday, but it’s actually been over seven years now since the day LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers delivered an NBA title to the city by beating Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in a truly unforgettable fashion. Speaking of Curry, former Cavs forward Iman Shumpert recently revealed that the two-time NBA Most Valuable Player was deemed by Cleveland players to be terrified of the idea of having to guard Kyrie Irving in the series.
“We realized Steph wasn’t trying to match up with Kyrie. All we took it as, ‘Oh, you scared of this dude?” the former Cavs player said in a recent episode of All The Smoke Podcast. “You scared of buddy?’ So, we just fed him. If Steph came and guarded me, if they tried to do a triple switch. Whatever they tried to do. If I go down here and set this screen, Steph would try and go on me, while I’m in the corner. I would bring my screen up too. Now you got a double screen, but you finna have to guard Kyrie.”
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Irving, of course, made the biggest shot of the series and arguably of all time in NBA Finals history, when he drained a go-ahead 3-pointer in Game 7 right in the face of Stephen Curry. In that Finals series, Irving averaged 27.1 points on 46.8 percent shooting from the field and 40.5 percent from behind the arc.