Kyrie Irving Considers Himself An 'International Player,' Says He Didn't Want To Play For Team USA

Kyrie Irving has won gold medals on three separate occasions while playing for Team USA, but if he had it his way, those three accomplishments never would have happened. Or so he says.

During a recent Twitch stream, which I'm sure was filled with incredibly insightful dialogue, Irving explained that he sees himself as an "international player" even though he's played with 'USA' on the front of his jersey throughout his career.

“I consider myself an international player even though I played on Team USA,” Irving said on the stream. "A lot of my peers laugh at me when I bring it up and some fans may not agree, but I was born in Australia."

Irving was indeed born in Melbourne, Australia in 1992, but moved to the United States when he was just two years old. This of course means he doesn't have a single memory of living in Aussie land and all of his childhood memories come from growing up in New Jersey, but he still wanted to be an international player on the hardwood.

Kyrie Irving would rather play for Australia instead of the USA, despite already winning three gold medals. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)

So, why didn't Irving decide to represent Australia on the international level, which he would have been well within his rights to do so? It's all Mike Krzyzewski's fault, which is who he played for during his brief college stint at Duke.

“Coach K wasn’t going to let that happen either,” Irving noted, according to Daily Mail.

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Irving helped lead the U.S. U-18 team to a FIBA Americas championship in 2018. He followed that up with a gold medal in the 2014 World Cup in Spain, and then reached the peak of the international game by winning a gold medal with Team USA in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Despite those three major notes he's managed to add to his loaded résume, he still wishes he played for Australia, a country that has won exactly one medal (a bronze) in Olympic men's basketball history.