30 most unguardable moves in NBA history: 21. Kyrie Irving, flashy layups
Chances are if you’re reading Hoops Habit, you’re pretty in touch with basketball. So I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you know what I’m saying when I say that Kyrie Irving is the unmitigated king of jelly. An absolute menace with the ball in his hands, Kyrie keeps the ball on a string and dominates with his shifty, elusive dribbles that turn defenders around like a Merry Go ‘Round.
Kyrie is as ambidextrous of a finisher as the league has ever seen, contorting his body in mid-air to finish dazzling layups that are sure to make his defender’s head spin. When he gets just a little bit of steam hedging toward the basket, Kyrie levitates to the rim and observes the reaction of each rim protector before changing the angle of his shot and gently banking it in despite the circumstances.
We’ve seen him spin mid-air, change hands, go up-and-under and even go reverse on many occasions throughout his professional career. His ball-handling skill matches that of many basketball greats that came before him, joining the ranks of Tim Hardaway, Allen Iverson, Jamal Crawford and Pete Maravich in basketball history.
It feels like Kyrie Irving has a magnet in his fingertips that allows him to control the ball with such ease. Through all of his acrobatic moves including eurosteps, hop-steps, gathers and drives through contact, Kyrie always manages to make the right decision within a split second to ensure the ball will drop through the net.
Even without dunking the basketball, Kyrie Irving remains one of the flashiest, most entertaining players to watch. Much of that is due to his signature ability to control the ball and will his way to the basket for these mystifying buckets. The jelly is real.