An interesting past reveals Kyrie Irving may have an injury prone career

Jason WhitneyShould Kyrie Irving be labeled injury prone? Before my fantasy draft I was discussing Kyrie Irving and his ceiling with a couple of my NBA writers. One subject that I brought up was health. We already know what Kyrie can do on the basketball court, but remaining on the basketball court has been his biggest problem. For whatever reason, it feels like this happens all too often in the NBA. Certain guys are just prone to injury. For the record, I’m a huge Kyrie Irving fan. I’m a self-admitting Duke hater, but even when I saw him play in a limited amount of games for the power house Blue Devils, I knew the kid had potential. I have a feeling that Irving is going to tantalize us with his play on the court, but then get the inevitable injury that stops him from ever achieving his full potential on the basketball hardwood. So far we know that Kyrie Irving separated his shoulder in high school before stepping foot on the Duke campus. Once Irving put on the Duke uniform he wore it for only 11 full games. This time, he was out the majority of his short stay at Duke because of an injured big toe. After declaring himself eligible for the NBA Draft, Irving was chosen number one overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. You’d hardly confuse Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripkin for being synonymous with Kryie Irving. In his first season with the Cavs, he played 51 out of 66 games. Irving missed the final 15 games of the season because he injured the same shoulder he did in high school and had concussion problems. Big deal, right? So the Cavs rookie missed the final 15 games during a lock-out shortened season in which the Cavs weren’t going anywhere anyway. Well now it’s starting to look like this could be a big deal. Smash cut to last Summer when Irving drew rave reviews for his play against the United States Olympic hoops team. Things started looking up for the reigning NBA Rookie of the Year. Then in a moment of anger, Irving hit a padded mat, resulting in a broken hand. Subsequently leading Irving to miss all of the Cavs summer league games. Now comes the latest injury for the prized second year talent. Irving hit his finger against the foot of Mavericks point guard Darren Collison. The prognosis is Irving will miss four weeks with a hairline, non-displaced fracture in his left index finger. Just another set-back in the young career of Kyrie Irving. Whether it be a toe, finger, shoulder or a concussion, the savior of the Cleveland franchise has hardly been that at all. We all hope Irving can turn the early promise he has shown into stardom, but until he can prove he can stay on the court, this may never come to fruition. Irving at just 20 years old and has a ton of time to change this tag that is starting to be attached to his name. Unfortunately, if he cannot avoid these pesky injuries, I’m afraid we may never get to see the true ceiling of Kyrie Irving. Sports-Kings - The Kings of Sports Lists