Kyrie Irving had LeBron James‘ back on Friday night. During the opening quarter of Cleveland’s 122-105 victory over Philadelphia, Irving shoved Sixers forward Justin Anderson into his bench. It was an uncharacteristic move from Irving, who is a pretty cool customer on the court and isn’t the kind of guy who you’d expect to do something this blatantly against the rules.
But Irving’s shove was rooted in a desire to be a good teammate – before this happened, Anderson got a little too physical with James for Irving’s liking. Anderson shoved James, so Irving decided to send a message that you’re going to have to deal with him if you mess with LeBron. Here’s a video of the whole ordeal.
After the game, the best basketball player in the world spoke about the incident and was appreciative of Irving’s actions.
“What’d I think?” James asked. “That he was protecting me for getting shoved. That’s what it’s about, we’re a brotherhood around here, we won’t let nothing happen to each other.”
Irving also spoke about the incident with the media, and laughed after one reporter asked if he’s now an enforcer.
“I’m still not [an enforcer],” Irving said. “I’m still not that, I’m still not that. But whether it was malicious or not, I caught the tail end of it and I kind of saw Justin lower his shoulder and knock down Bron, and that kind of took me out of the play. And I was like ‘I hope he doesn’t get the basketball again, otherwise I gotta do something, I gotta protect my brother.'”
Irving also raised the point that players try to “get one over” on James through things like “late hits,” and declared that “it’s over for that.” James has mentioned in the past that he does not like reacting to things like this because, from his perspective, nothing good can come from that.
Cleveland’s last month or two hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. The team is currently a half game back of the Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East, and the Cavaliers haven’t been nearly as sharp as you’d expect out of the defending champs. Maybe Irving – one of the team’s leaders and someone who has said he needs to demand more out of himself – going out and making this declaration is the kind of thing the team needs to get a fire lit under them heading into the postseason.
