Irving doesn't view Cavs as title underdogs with Durant on Warriors
Shortly after the Cleveland Cavaliers captured the franchise's first NBA championship and ended the city's 52-year title drought, a majority of attention in the basketball world shifted to the Golden State Warriors after the team agreed to terms with four-time scoring champion Kevin Durant.
The monumental acquisition made the Warriors the overwhelming favorites to capture the 2016-17 championship, even though they had just come off a loss to Cleveland in an epic seven-game series.
Kyrie Irving, who hit what turned out to be the game-winner during the final minute of Game 7, doesn't think the Cavaliers should be viewed as underdogs to repeat after the Warriors upgraded their core in such a huge way.
"I don't know what that feels like. I don't know what it feels like to be an underdog," Irving told Complex Sports' Zach Frydenlund. "I never see myself as an underdog at any moment in my life. Coming into next season there will probably be some favorites, but I definitely don't see us as an underdog."
Irving is used to defying the odds to achieve success. The three-time All-Star had to overcome a broken left knee cap which kept him out of a majority of last year's Finals with Golden State, while also dealing with skepticism surrounding the team over whether they were capable of being champions.
"The haters weren't my true motivation to why I wanted a championship. It's good to prove people wrong in the process of doing great things, but they definitely don't make me get up in the morning to prove them wrong," Irving said. "It was just that I think we really solidified our team, we solidified our statements about what we thought about ourselves and how great we felt we were as a team. We just finally solidified it.
"I just really remember Vegas (where the Cavs celebrated after Game 7) and the numbers and the odds of us coming back from 3-1. Everyone basically writing us off and they (the Warriors) were going to be repeat champions. All that noise was great. It just added fuel to the fire."
Cleveland became the first team in league history to overcome a 3-1 deficit, winning two games at Oracle Arena - including the series finale - to defeat the Warriors and hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy for the first time.