Season Overview: One of the key words reiterated all season long by Byron Scott was “opportunity.” Transactions, injuries and ineffective play provided plenty of that precious NBA commodity in 2011-12.

And for the second straight season, the player who made the most of his opportunity was forward Alonzo Gee.

You could say that Kyrie Irving’s journey from a teenager who’d played 11 college games to the NBA’s Rookie of the Year began the night the Cavaliers took him with the No. 1 pick in June or when he first reported to Training Camp. Or maybe when he scored 14 points in the first half of his first preseason game as a pro in Detroit.

But as Irving accepted the award on Tuesday morning at Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence – becoming just the second Cavalier in franchise history to do so – he pinpointed another moment in his freshman campaign.