This article suggests that Kyrie Irving would be a perfect fit for the Toronto Raptors, but makes the mistake of underrating his athleticism.
Look, obviously it's important. You have to be a good athlete to play at a high level. Yet there are a lot of great athletes who never completely figure out how to play basketball. Baby Jordan! We're talking to you.
Basketball, when you get down to it, is the art of knowing who your guys are, where they are going and doing what you can to help them do whatever it is that they do best.
There have been a lot of players over the years whose athleticism was questioned. No one more so than Larry Bird, but his counterpart Magic Johnson was not freakishly athletic either.
Neither was Isaiah Thomas, who nonetheless was a dominant NBA player. Don't get us wrong, he was a fine athlete, but not freakishly so.
Pete Maravich was no freak either, but he more than held his own.
We've always liked Jason Kidd, for that matter, but he lost what quickness he had years ago. His intelligence has allowed to burn countless opponents.
And the guy people completely misunderstood most recently? Stephen Curry, who supposely couldn't cut it in the NBA.
What people need to understand about Irving is that he can see what's on the floor and make uncannily smart decisions. The other thing that should be interesting is that the NBA is, usually anyway, a more open game, which makes his passing and decision making that much more deadly.
People haven't really seen him. We watched him enough to know: the guy has it.
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