Kyrie Irving Really Does Not Like LeBron James
This all is coming out now because three main Cavs beat writers – Dave McMenamin, Joe Vardon, and Jason Lloyd – sat down on 92.3 The Fan to recap Cleveland’s last four seasons now that LeBron is in LA and the Cavs run is over. While it was already hinted at that Kyrie wasn’t the biggest LeBron guy (since, ya know, he demanded a trade out of Cleveland after their third straight trip to the Finals) but there were still plenty who theorized that Kyrie didn’t hate LeBron, he just knew that LeBron was going to leave and wanted to get out ahead of that. According to these three, that was not the case.
Per their conversation:
- Kyrie never made strong relationships within the Cavs organization both before and while LeBron was in Cleveland. Kyrie didn’t like Mike Brown because Larry Hughes didn’t like Mike Brown.
– There was a serious debate within the Cavs organization whether to choose Dion Waiters over Kyrie at a point in time.
– Kyrie didn’t like Ty Lue because Ty Lue once remarked, “players need to put their brands aside,” referring to Love and Kyrie worrying about their endorsements.
– Ty Lue admitted to Dave McMenamin that Kyrie has treated him like a stranger since Day 1 and that it was “impossible to break through to him.”
– According to Lloyd, “It has been made clear to me by multiple people, Kyrie never really wanted LeBron to come back (to Cleveland) in the first place. 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.'”
– Kyrie did not appreciate constant LeBron questions. McMenamin was writing a story about LeBron’s improved three point shot and Kyrie was annoyed when approached about any noticeable changes to Bron’s technique.
– The media made a big deal about LeBron wearing the “I Can’t Breathe” shirt despite Kyrie being the first Cav to speak out and wear it. This tied in to the “Flat Earth” drama because Kyrie didn’t appreciate that he was getting more attention for this than when he spoke about more serious social topics. When LeBron talked about these issues it was received much differently.
– Lloyd claims he approached LeBron at the start of the ’17 season and said that “you and Kyrie hid the poor status of your relationship very well the past few years,” to which LeBron agreed.
– Kyrie considered leaving immediately after winning the title in ’16.
– Kyrie believed the Cavs were built to support LeBron’s strengths, and if LeBron left Kyrie would be left with an ill-fitting squad, which is what prompted him to request a trade last offseason. Kyrie did threaten surgery if he was not traded last summer.
– Kyrie did not talk to a single teammate between last year’s Indiana and Toronto series. Not a single word.
Alright so there’s two ways to look at this. One, Kyrie was right that the Cavs would be an unmitigated disaster the second LeBron decided to leave. Hitting the reset button elsewhere was surely the most beneficial move for his career at that point in time. Where he got lucky was that he didn’t get traded to San Antonio, which has developed into a clusterfuck, or New York, which is always a clusterfuck. He still may very much leave for New York next offseason, who even knows, but compared to how he’s spoken about Brad Stevens and the Celtics organization as a whole put up against these second hand stories it appears to be night and day. I wouldn’t much care for an organization that thought I was worse than Dion Waiters either.
The other part to this is that Kyrie doesn’t come out smelling completely like roses after this. He was right that LeBron was leaving, that the Cavs organization wasn’t bright, and constant questions from the media about LeBron’s greatness could definitely be annoying. But not talking to ANY of your teammates for two rounds of the playoffs when you’re trying to make a run isn’t the best look. It’s not the end of the world by any means, but it’s not great, either.
As long as no reporters ask him if Brad Stevens has been a good father, I think he’ll be fine in Boston. Please, for the love of God, no one ask him if Stevens has been a father figure to him.