The Kyrie Irving saga continues in Cleveland as the Cavs try to find a trade that brings back reasonable value for their star point guard. While dealing with the immediate issue of Irving’s trade request, the Cavs are also keeping one eye to the future and LeBron James’ potential departure in free agency by asking for a young star to kickstart a rebuild if necessary.
At the heart of Irving’s trade request is a desire to be the top dog on a team, something that won’t happen so long as James is around. It’s something former general manager David Griffin understands, as James casts a large shadow over everyone and the 25-year-old wants to prove himself as the star on a team.
While Griffin understands Irving’s request, not many others do. Other NBA stars, fans, and the media have all been a bit confused as to why Irving would want to leave a situation in which his skills are amplified by James and his team regularly makes the NBA Finals. Irving’s request has been described as everything from courageous to selfish and everything in between and has sparked plenty of columns and thinkpieces, but the best response was from AOK on YouTube, which created a parody video of Eminem’s “Stan,” with Kyrie writing to LeBron.
The lyrics are pretty genius, from the chorus:
LeBron is mad
I’m wondering why
I asked for a trade at all
I scored 40 in the Finals.
But I can’t please LeBron
And even if I could I’m not Chris Paul
With their picture on a boat *1
It reminds me that it’s not my Cavs, LeBron runs the Cavs.
To the final verse:
Dear Mr. I’m-Too-Good-to-Commit To Cleveland.
This’ll be the last message I send before I’m leaving.
It’s been three seasons, I’m second fiddle — do I deserve it?
I know you got my last email
I even CC’d Brian Windhorst
So this is my message I’m sendin’ you, I hope you get it
I’m in the gym right now, I’m scorin’ 30 next season
Hey, Bron, I wanna go to the West too, you dare me to go?
Stephen A Smith said if you saw me it’d come to blows.
And all I wanted was a chance to handle the ball
I hope you know I ripped all of our Fatheads off the wall
I loved you, Bron, we coulda played together — think about it!
It’s ruined now, I hope you don’t win and you dream about it
And when you leave I hope you lose
And you scream about it; I hope your conscience eats at you
Cause you can’t win without me
See, Bron— shut up, Dan! I’m tryin’ to talk
Hey, Bron, that’s Dan Gilbert screamin’ in the hall
But I didn’t stab his back, I let him know first, see I ain’t like you.
‘Cause if he trades me, he’ll get a good player back too
Well, gotta go, I’m almost off the Cavs now
Oh shit, I forgot, how am I supposed to win a title now?!
It’s all quite clever and a reminder of how the doldrums of the NBA offseason can often lead to some tremendous creativity.
