When Kyrie Irving requested that the Cavs trade him last summer, it came as an absolute shock. Nobody could understand why someone of his caliber wouldn’t relish the opportunity to play alongside the greatest player of his generation and compete for championships every single season.
As it turned out, Irving didn’t like the notion of playing in LeBron’s shadow, despite the fact that he logged a higher usage rate and took more shot attempts than LeBron in their last season together. Nevermind all that. Irving wanted to lead his own team, so the Cavs acquiesced and sent him to the Celtics.
Since then, all sorts of details have trickled in about their sometimes icy relationship, but according to the latest reports, it appears as if Irving never wanted LeBron to return home to Cleveland in the first place after his four-year stint with the Miami Heat.
Here’s what Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, Dave McMenamin of ESPN, and Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon had to say on a recent round-table discussion on 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland.
“It has been made clear to me by multiple people, Kyrie never really wanted LeBron to come back in the first place,” Lloyd said. “He didn’t think it was necessary. LeBron said something to Kyrie on the court following a game when he was with Miami, something to the effect of, ‘Keep going, keep doing what you’re doing. You never know, I could be back here one day.’ And Kyrie basically said, ‘What’s he talking about? We don’t need him.'”
McMenamin went on to claim that Irving nearly requested a trade after the Cavs won the title in 2016. According to Vardon, the relationship had begun to sour back during the 2015 playoffs when Irving played through a knee injury and was eventually ruled out of the Finals. The rumors were that LeBron and his camp thought Irving was being soft.
Nevertheless, it sounds as if Kyrie wasn’t keen on playing with LeBron from the very beginning and that the relationship was essentially doomed before it even started. Still, they managed to overcome all that and achieve their ultimate goal, which was to bring a championship to Cleveland, the city’s first in more than 50 years.
