Jay Williams: Kyrie Irving is 'The Most Skilled Player in the History of Basketball'

It's nice to appreciate Kyrie's greatness again.
Denver Nuggets v Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets v Dallas Mavericks / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages
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Kyrie Irving hit one of the craziest shots in NBA history on Sunday. His left-handed runner / hook shot / floater from outside the paint at the buzzer gave the Dallas Mavericks a 107-105 win over the Denver Nuggets and it also got people talking about Kyrie Irving the basketball player, which might seem like an obvious thing, but do you remember the last few years?

It was like he and Aaron Rodgers were in a competition to see who could muddy their legacy as an all-time great faster. But now Kyrie, by doing something that maybe no one else in the world could do, has Jay Williams going on Get Up to call him the most skilled player ever.

He might not be wrong. There's no way to actually determine this with any certainty, but when you look at the things Kyrie can do on a basketball court, it's hard to pick any one thing that someone else is definitely better at.

First, Kyrie Irving is a great ballhandler. He has an impeccable handle. He has crazy handles. However you want to say it, it's a sight to behold. Players in the current era of basketball can do things with the ball that Hall of Fame point guards from the early NBA could never dream of and Kyrie is possibly the best.

Then there's his left hand. That shot he made on Sunday is one that, well, how many guys on the planet would even attempt it? It's a H.O.R.S.E. shot that most people couldn't even dream of and he did it in a professional basketball game. There's no one better at making shots with their left hand that Kyrie Irving. And he's right-handed.

Then there's the shooting. He has the 73rd-highest career three-point shooting percentage in NBA history. That's .0015 percent behind Reggie Miller who took 1.3 fewer attempts per game in his career. And he made one of the most iconic three-pointers ever taken.

Put simply, Kyrie Irving is a wizard with a basketball. Everything that you learn to do when you start to play basketball, he does it at an elite level and he's done it on the biggest stages. And it is refreshing to actually be thinking about that instead of all the other stuff for the first time in a long time.