While he may be outspoken at times and not afraid to share his opinions on social media, Kyrie Irving has proven to be one of the best guards of his generation. An eight-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA performer, the current Dallas Mavericks star has played with a ton of superstars through the years, including LeBron James.

Irving and James went to the NBA Finals three straight seasons together and they led the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first championship ever in 2016. Some of Irving's best years were alongside James on the Cavs, but he's also been quite successful since cutting ties with the league's all-time leading scorer.

Since leaving the Cavaliers in 2017, Irving has played for the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and most recently the Dallas Mavericks. With all three teams, he has become a much better scoring weapon and he's continued to prove that he is one of the best guards in the league. However, there are still some who like to critique his game and Irving sent a clear message to his doubters on social media recently.

“Pin this tweet and see what happens in the next few years,” Irving stated in response to a post claiming he's found no success since leaving LeBron.

It is really hard to make the claim that Irving has not found any success in his post-LeBron era. He has been injured three of the last six times his team made it to the playoffs and it is hard to be critical of him missing the playoffs this past season with the Mavs, especially since he only played in 20 regular season games with Dallas. As far as the 2022 playoffs go, him and Kevin Durant were just simply outmatched in their first-round series against the Celtics.

Just because a player does not make the NBA Finals does not mean they aren't successful, as if this was true, we would have to go back and call many legends of the league unsuccessful throughout their careers.

As a player, Irving has found plenty of success without LeBron James and his numbers clearly show this. With Cleveland, Irving averaged 21.6 points, 5.5 assists and shot 45.7 from the floor, 38.3 from three-point range. In the last six seasons, he's averaged 25.8 points, 5.9 assists and has shot 49.0 from the floor, 39.9 percent from three-point range.

With the Cavaliers, Irving's player efficiency rating was 21.3 and since then, his PER has increased to 23.8 when you combine his time with Boston, Brooklyn and Dallas.

To say he has not found success is a selfish statement and simply disrespectful to him as a player. Now alongside Luka Doncic on the Mavs, Irving will not only be looking to get back to the playoffs, but help bring Dallas back to the Western Conference Finals for the second time since 2022. Regardless of how you feel about him, Irving is a top-tier guard in this league and that is why the Mavs decided to give him a new $120 million contract this offseason.