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World Cup MVP Kyrie Irving Named 2014 USA Male Athlete Of The Year


World Cup and earning tournament MVP honors along the way, Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers) was named the 2014 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year. The USA Basketball Board of Directors is responsible for selecting its annual award winners. “It’s truly an honor and a blessing to


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be among such a great lineage of award winners, and USA Basketball was the best experience of my life thus far, just being a part of a team that’s bigger than myself,” Irving said. “The sacrifice we all had to make in order to make that team work and the adversity that we


USA Basketball Male Athlete Of The Year Award Recipients


Year Athlete


2014 Kyrie Irving 2013 Aaron Gordon 2012 LeBron James 2011


Jabari Parker


2010 Kevin Durant 2009 James McAdoo 2008 2008 USA Senior National Team 2007 Jason Kidd 2006 Carmelo Anthony 2005 Shelden Williams 2004 Sean May / Chris Paul 2003 Tim Duncan 2002 Reggie Miller 2001 Chris Duhon 2000 Alonzo Mourning 1999 Gary Payton 1998 Elton Brand 1997 Earl Boykins 1996 Scottie Pippen 1995 Ray Allen 1994 Shaquille O’Neal 1993 Michael Finley 1992 1992 U.S. Olympic Team 1991


Christian Laettner


1990 Alonzo Mourning 1989 Larry Johnson 1988 Dan Majerle 1987 Danny Manning 1986 David Robinson 1985 Chuck Person 1984 Michael Jordan / Sam Perkins 1983 Michael Jordan 1982 Glenn Rivers 1981 Kevin Boyle 1980 Isiah Thomas


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fter helping to lead USA Basketball to a gold medal at the 2014 FIBA Basketball


faced – and we came home with a gold medal. We were together through it all, and we won a gold medal together, so I’m going to remember it for the rest of my life.” As a member of the 2014 USA


Basketball World Cup Team, Irving started in all nine games and averaged 12.1 points, 2.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.9 steals in 24.4 minutes per game to help lead the USA to a 9-0 record and gold medal from Aug. 30-Sept. 14 in Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid, Spain. The first-place finish qualified the USA for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Irving was named MVP after a gold-medal-game performance that saw him score a game-high 26 points and record four assists while shooting 10-of-13 from the field, including a USA World Cup record 6-of-6 from 3-point.


“Kyrie truly was a joy to watch


throughout the FIBA World Cup this past summer and especially in the gold medal game,” said USA Basketball CEO/Executive Director Jim Tooley. “He is very deserving of this honor, and we are proud to recognize him as the 2014 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year.” The 2014 gold medal was Irving’s


first title in senior-level international competition, and his second gold medal overall with USA Basketball. “I think Kyrie came of age,” said


USA head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Duke University), who was named as a 2014 USA Basketball Co-National Coach of the Year. “He’s a terrific player, but he became a great player during the summer of 2014. I think sometimes to become that great player, you need a stage to do it on, and the stage was the World Cup. He performed his best on that stage, and now that’s the level he is expected to play at. I’m really proud of him.” USA Basketball’s Male Athlete of


the Year Award was established in 1980 to recognize a USA Basketball athlete who, during the year of the award, made a significant impact on the success of his team’s performance. Throughout the USA’s nine FIBA


As a member of his first USA National Team, Kyrie Irving collected MVP honors at the 2014 FIBA World Cup and later earned 2014 USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year recognition.


World Cup wins, Irving shot 60.9 per- cent from 3-point (14-23 3pt FGs) to set the U.S. event career record for 3-point percentage, and he shot 56.3 percent from the field (45-80 FGs) overall. Among all players in the 16-team


field, he ranked fourth in 3-point per- centage (.609), fifth in steals (1.9) and tied for 11th in assist/turnover ratio 2.3. He reached double-digit scoring in


six games, and his 26 points in the final were the most points scored by a U.S. player throughout the tournament. He also scored 18 points in the semifinal win against Lithuania and dished out six assists to go with 11 points versus Ukraine in a preliminary round victory. Averaging 10.7 points and a team-


high 4.3 assists per game while shooting 63.6 percent from the field, Irving also helped the USA to a 4-0 exhibition record with wins over Brazil (95-78,


Continued on page 20 USA Basketball News


Jesse Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images


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