Yaxel Lendeborg is not shy about the fact that he’s a big Kyrie Irving fan, and while bringing up the 2016 NBA Finals might offend Warriors fans, it’s a point of pride for the 23-year-old.“I’m a Kyrie guy, so I go wherever he goes,” Lendeborg told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Bonta Hill and Monte Poole. “I’m a Cavaliers fan at that time. We played [the Warriors] in the Finals like three years in a row. I’m like, ‘Man, I hate these guys, I’m so tired of them.’ “
While the Warriors got the better of the Cavaliers in 2015, a go-ahead 3-pointer from Irving helped seal Cleveland’s first franchise title and gave a young Lendeborg plenty to cheer about.
“That Game 7 when Kyrie hit that shot, I was in New York at our cousin’s house,” Lendeborg recalled to Hill and Poole. “He hit that shot, I ran down the hallway like 10 times screaming, ‘Let’s Go! Go Cavs!’ all this other stuff. It’s so ironic that I’m here now.”
Lendeborg is now teammates with a pair of Warriors who went through that devastating...