The former Big 3 of the Cleveland Cavaliers are now scattered about the league, with LeBron James in Los Angeles, Kyrie Irving in Boston, and Kevin Love the lone one remaining in Cleveland.
While it seems to be all love between Love and his former teammates, the relationship between Kyrie and LeBron has been questionable since the point guard asked for a trade out of Cleveland, pushing his way to Boston. Part of the reason Irving wanted a trade from the Cavs was to get out from under the shadow of LeBron and get a chance to prove himself as the top star on a team, something that would never happen as long as he was with James.
In Boston, he has that chance, albeit on a very talented basketball team, but he’s learned this year exactly how difficult being “the guy” can be. Irving has recently taken to calling out his young teammates after poor efforts and begging them to put in consistent effort needed to win a championship, which is very reminiscent of the motivational tactics of one LeBron James. Over the weekend, those similarities became clear to Irving too, who revealed recently that he called LeBron to discuss the difficulties of leadership and to apologize for once being that young, stubborn player who didn’t want to listen.
Ironically enough, Kyrie’s call to LeBron happened to be when the Cavs were in L.A. to take on the Lakers and it turned into something of a mini-reunion, as Kevin Love was at dinner with James at the time, drinking wine and catching up when Kyrie popped up on LeBron’s phone, as Love told The Athletic’s Joe Vardon.
“LeBron looked down at his phone and he showed us,” Love told The Athletic, describing the scene. “He was like, ‘I wonder what he wants?’”
Whether by coincidence or not, the call taking place in the midst of a little Cavs reunion in L.A. is pretty perfect. Channing Frye thought the call showed major growth for Irving as he becomes a leader, because of what it takes to call up someone out of the blue to apologize and talk about things.
As for his thoughts on Kyrie’s realization of everything he learned from James and how he was once the young guy causing problems with winning, Love can relate.
“I think Kyrie went through some of the same struggles that I did,” said Love, who was 26 in 2014, when he and James and Irving joined forces. “There were some bad habits and maybe not knowing what it means to sacrifice and take a back seat to someone like a LeBron, who was trying to teach us how to win. I think I’m a much better player now, a much better teammate from having gone through it.”
What we don’t know is whether Irving regrets pushing his way out when he did or if he still sees that as the right move. Still, it’s clear that he’s gained plenty of perspective in his time in Boston when it comes to his personal and professional growth in Cleveland, and it’s nice that he wanted to call up LeBron to talk about that and explain that he now sees what James went through in those first years with the Cavs.
UPDATE: Kevin Love took to Twitter to clear some things up, noting the call was prior to their dinner and he was never shown the phone. He quickly deleted the tweet, so, something got misrepresented here, but it’s nice that Kevin is happy for Kyrie and LeBron being able to reconcile a bit like that.
