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Kyrie Irving opened up about his father’s unwavering influence on his basketball career

The first time Kyrie Irving beat his dad playing one-on-one, he was 16 years old.

“I beat him 16-0,” Irving told Celtics radio broadcasters Sean Grande and Cedric Maxwell. “I had some tears come down my face from leaving that court playing against him.”

Irving’s father, Drederick, played basketball for Boston University. Averaging 19.9 points per game his senior season, he helped lead the Terriers to the 1988 NCAA tournament and finished his college career as the school’s all-time leading scorer. While that record has since been broken, Drederick is still known as “one of most prolific scorers” in B.