One of many best moments in NBA historical past got here on June 19, 2016, when Kyrie Irving hit a clutch three-point shot to take the lead and win in opposition to Steph Curry and the Warriors. It was a second that created a large domino impact inside the NBA and one which each Curry and Kyrie nonetheless bear in mind.
In an interview with Logan Murdock of The Ringer, each Curry and Irving revisited their iconic Sport 7 NBA Finals second yet one more time.
“I believed I used to be shut sufficient that I might take away the pull-up, after which your complete purpose is to simply preserve a physique on him and [make him] drive into site visitors,” Curry mentioned to Murdock.
Nonetheless, Curry made one deadly flaw and Kyrie Irving knew it. Curry did not know that Irving had a proper stepback.
“One factor that he didn’t know was that I had a proper stepback,” Irving mentioned. “So after I dribbled and I hesi’d and I type of obtained him off and I stepped proper, he didn’t anticipate me to step proper as a result of he wasn’t shut sufficient to my physique to get an amazing contest.”
Curry believes he defended Irving as nice as doable, and solely gave Irving a few inches. Nonetheless, Kyrie Irving is so good at basketball that he can flip inches into miles, and that was all he wanted to win the sport.
“There was one half step that, on reflection, that little facet step gave him sufficient of a distance,” Curry mentioned. “As a result of a contest was there, however he was simply excessive of it. I did all the pieces, I believed. … It’s a sport of inches.”
Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving have had some historic battles in opposition to one another. The character of what makes a rivalry nice is the truth that each side have gotten wins in opposition to one another – one thing each Irving and Curry have completed.