West Orange native Kyrie Irving goes for hoops gold for Team USA at the Rio Olympics

WEST ORANGE – Kyrie Irving just won an NBA championship.

Now, the West Orange native is ready to bring home the gold from Rio.

Irving, who led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA championship in June, is a member of the Team USA Basketball Team for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Olympics will be held Aug. 5-21.

It is Irving’s first Olympics. He is reunited with his college head coach, Duke University’s Mike Krzyzewski, who is the Team USA head coach for the third straight Olympics. Krzyzewski, the all-time winningest coach in Division 1 history, led the team to the Gold medal in the previous two Olympics in 2008 and 2012. Irving, a point guard, played just one year at Duke before declaring for the NBA Draft in which he was selected No. 1 overall by the Cavaliers in 2011. Irving’s freshman year at Duke was marred by injury in which he just played 11 games.

Irving, along with mega star LeBron James, guided the Cavaliers to an historic win over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals in June. The Cavaliers became the first team in NBA Finals history to overcome a three games-to-one series deficit.

In fact, Irving hit the decisive three-pointer in Game 7. The shot broke an 89-89 tie with 53 seconds left in the fourth quarter as the Cavaliers won, 93-89. Irving finished with 26 points.

In the NBA Finals, Irving averaged 27.1 points and 3.9 assists. He shot  47 percent overall from the floor and 41 percent from three-point range.