LeBron James has an uncanny ability to appear on social media when other things in the media world happen that are tangentially related to him. In this case, Kyrie Irving was getting interrogated by Stephen A. Smith on ‘First Take’ on Monday morning when videos popped up in LeBron’s Instagram story.
In the videos, James is in the gym at UCLA with Cavaliers teammate Kevin Love. The two appear to be working out together in preparation for the upcoming season. It will be their first on the Cavaliers together since Kyrie Irving asked to be traded, setting up a long, strange process where rumors swirled about his eventual destination and cost.
But Love himself was a popular target of trade rumors. Despite that, it appears that James and Love are getting along quite well off the court.
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“I appreciate you letting me to use your facilities all summer. I really do. I really appreciate you letting me use your facilities all summer,” James says, pointing the camera at Love while he does bicep curls.
Love is smiling, but not looking away from his reps.
“No? Not gonna pay me no attention?” James asks. “No? Alright.”
In another video, James is walking around campus while Love gives him a “tour.” James, who jumped to the NBA out of high school and never attended college, joked that he was an “incoming freshman” at UCLA.
“I’m here shadowing the upperclassman. He’s showing me around campus,” James said, laughing. “He’s showing me around campus right now.
James has posted his workout videos a number of times over the summer, and they’ve been dissected pretty thoroughly as responses to Irving asking for a trade or people doubting him in some way. Maybe he just wanted to show that he’s having a good time working out with Love. Or maybe James wants to make clear that the teammates he still has are appreciated.
Those two videos alone probably had more words from James than Irving said during his entire First Take appearance, though. It seems James is more than comfortable with the spotlight, especially when he can take away some attention to his former teammate.
