Irving chosen USA Basketball’s top male athlete

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving, the MVP of the Basketball World Cup, was honored Sunday as the USA Basketball Male Athlete of the Year. Irving started in all nine games for the Americans in Spain and averaged 12.1 points and 3.6 assists. He scored 26 points in the gold-medal game, going 6 of 6 from 3-point range to spark a rout of Serbia. Irving was selected by USA Basketball’s board of directors. “It’s truly an honor and a blessing to be among such a great lineage of award winners, and USA Basketball was the best experience of my life thus far, just being a part of a team that’s bigger than myself,” Irving said. – From news services