Among all of the folks that congratulated Kyrie Irving after hitting a game-winner in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, one of the firsts to get in touch with him (via FaceTime) was Kobe Bryant. So it should come as no surprise that after Irving hit another winner against the Warriors on Christmas, Bryant showed his support.

While Bryant's tweet does look like an ad for his fellow Nike brethren, the former Los Angeles Lakers superstar and Irving have developed a mentor-mentee relationship. Their relationship first started at a 2012 USA basketball minicamp and was further developed thanks to Cavs director of player development and assistant coach Phil Handy.

Irving spoke about his relationship with Bryant in a recent interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols:

"Kobe's been very influential in my life." Irving tells Nichols. "Just watching from the outside and now it's turned into a mentorship. Now it's just ... it felt that much better because now I have direction. I started reaching out and asking for help rather than just being a stubborn young player and just trying to figure it out on my own."

"Ultimately there are other people put on this world to help you get to where you need to go or where you want to go, so why not utilize it," Irving added.

And based on Irving's game-winner, it looks like he is utilizing Bryant's teachings and is becoming a clutch-time performer just like the former Lakers star.