If Kyrie Irving seems weird to a lot of fans, it’s because he has had to experience a ton of crazy things since a young age, and yet, he still was able to show off his emmence talent to the world.
Before Kyrie Irving rose to prominence as one of the best players in the NBA, his father was making a name for himself as one of the greatest athletes at Boston University (BU) and even dreamt of going to the NBA.
He had a tryout with the Boston Celtics, but he failed, so he would eventually give up on his NBA dreams and focus on his family.
That is where the next story comes in that highlights how Kyrie would lose his mother early in life and how his father survived while working in the World Trade Center during the 2001 attack.
“A friend of mine was on the basketball team. His name is Drederick. Highest scorer in the history of BU (Boston University) when we graduate. We graduate and only 3 NBA teams look at him. I move out to LA, I come back, Drederick walks in wearing a Hertz rent-a-car shirt and my heart dropped. That was the first time I realized that in life, sometimes things don’t work out.”
“I saw it with my friend and I was like ‘Wow’. He’s like, ‘yeah, I’m working for Hertz. I didn’t get picked up by any teams and I might go play in Australia. He goes to Australia, with the same girlfriend from BU, and he marries her. He’s playing in Australia and has a daughter and then a son. He’s just playing basketball to pay the bills and keep the dream alive. His wife isn’t feeling well and he gets a phone call that she died in the hospital. That she had a rare disease and she passed away.”
“Through all this, he’s teaching his son basketball. His son starts playing very well and he’s like, let me move to New Jersey, New York where I can get him into programs like LeBron’s at St. John High or whatever. He gets his son into a good basketball program and he takes a job at Reuters, which is in the World Trade Center. His son started to get good at basketball and one day he walks into work at 8:57 into the building’s lobby. In 2001, when the plane hit the building. He survives. He gets out of the building and gets reunited with his children.”
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The Irvings settled in New Jersey, and Drederick traveled to New York City daily for work at the Cantor Fitzgerald Company. His office was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center.
Kyrie was only four years old when his mother passed away from an unknown illness. The family would soon almost experience another tragedy as Drederick had just walked into the lobby of the World Trade Center, where he worked, when the plane crashed into the building on September 11, 2011.
Drederick survived and things would start to look up for the Irvings as Kyrie would eventually play basketball for the Duke Blue Devils, the same team his father played against in the NCAA tournament in the late 80s. Dederick dropped 14 points during that game, which was showed to Kyrie to get him to come play for Coach K.
“His son ends up going from high school, he starts to get interest from colleges. He goes with his son to see Coach K at Duke. They walk into the office for the meeting and on the TV is Drederick playing for BU against Duke in 1988, our senior year. We were ahead at halftime and almost pulled an upset in the tournament, but Drederick played great. His son is like, blown away that Coach K even remembers his dad. He said, ‘listen, a lot of kids are interested in coming to Duke. But if you are anything like that man I remember competing against, if your character is like his, Duke wants you. So he goes to Duke and gets hurt, but he comes back to the tournament and takes them all the way to like the Final Four. Then, he gets drafted by the NBA and he ends up living the dream his father couldn’t. My friend Drederick’s son is Kyrie Irving.”
Kyrie was a member of the 2010-11 Duke Blue Devils but managed to only play 11 games throughout the season. Despite what was said in the video, Duke got eliminated by Arizona before the Final Four, but Irving had shown enough talent to be the No. 1 pick in the 2011 Draft to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“So, if you want to know why Kyrie has some issues. Personally, unless you know what it’s like to lose your mother overnight then I don’t know how you can have a conversation about that.”
