Kyrie’s Done

By: Connor Lenahan

Really? Seriously, really? Every year we get the NBA Finals to look forward to and this year didn’t give us a crazy amount of excitement. Outside of the unbelievable Spurs-Clippers series, everything has been relatively boring for the lack of a better term. The Conference Final series went a combined nine games. Save for the Kevin Love shoulder dislocation and the aforementioned Spurs-Clippers war, there weren’t really many things that brought questions into the seemingly inevitable Finals matchup.

The Cavaliers and Warriors finally started the series last night with the Warriors taking the home win in overtime. The series was promising in that if the first game went to OT then maybe it would be a fight between two top teams. Then news broke this afternoon that Kyrie Irving has a broken kneecap and will be out for close to four months.

Forgive me for being pessimistic, but that’s the end of the series. LeBron James has brought bad teams to the Finals before – the 2007 Cavs – and lost decisively. Hell, LeBron has lost two Finals with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade at his side. LeBron, and really no player, can carry a team all the way to a championship alone. Doing it without Love would be hard enough, but possible. Doing it when your point guard is gone too? That’s not going to be good. Doing it against the NBA’s best team and the reigning MVP. Sorry, nope.

Next year better be good. We are owed a fun postseason, dammit. Get healthy, Kyrie. We need you back soon.