Kyrie Irving discusses his fractured relationship with LeBron James
Kyrie Irving went on ESPN’s First Take with Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman to discuss his move from Boston to Cleveland and inevitably his relationship with LeBron James.
If there’s anything we know about Kyrie Irving the person it’s that he doesn’t think the same way that many other athletes do. He is famous for saying the world is flat and that he’d like to start his own self-sustained community.
Those who have followed Irving throughout his career and have heard his views of the world weren’t as shocked by the trade request. Kyrie just isn’t your typical athlete. But even then, it was interesting to see some of the things he had to say about his former team and teammates on First Take.
One of the things that he revealed was that the trade request was something that he’s thought about before this summer. Irving felt that the timing wasn’t right to request the trade earlier saying, “I was very patient in my approach…I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way with our team’s success.”
When asked if this was something that he’s thought about in the past Kyrie answered by saying “absolutely.” He mentioned his “energy was off”. He seems to have attributed some of that to being in Cleveland and the environment in the Cavs’ organization.
One of the recurring themes of the entire interview was his desire to be happy. He repeated that the move wasn’t about basketball.
Irving deflected questions saying that it was an ego decision with him and LeBron. He said that he doesn’t have the ego or desire to be “the man” on a team. He wanted to be in an environment that he wants to be happy every single day.
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Things got dicey when he was asked about his relationship with LeBron.
"Kellerman: “Did you no longer want to play with LeBron James?”Irving: “It’s not really about wanting or not wanting to. It really just become how everyone turned this into a madness because it was myself and LeBron…Being with that guy was unbelievable…It didn’t have anything to do with not wanting to play with the best player on the planet. It didn’t have anything to do with not being the second fiddle, not wanting to be ‘son’d’, and as you like to say Max being a second class citizen I have no idea what that is or a second banana…I know that I am very solidified in who I am as a person and will always be that way.”"
He was then asked if he spoke with LeBron about the trade request.
"Smith: “Did you speak with LeBron?”Irving: “No.”Smith: “Why not?”Irving: “Why would I have to?”Smith: “…chances are if you don’t speak to somebody about it they might take it personally.”Irving: “Yeah.”Smith: “Do you care about that at all?”Irving: “No…I think we’re forgetting one important thing…I don’t think you owe anything to another person in terms of figuring out what you want to do with your life. It’s not anything personal…I have nothing but love for Cleveland. I have nothing but love for the times that I spent there…There just comes a time when you mature as an individual…there is not time to figure out how to save someone’s feelings. Ultimately you have to be selfish in that to figure out what you want to do…It wasn’t about me not wanting to win…I want to be extremely happy…It’s ultimately my decision.”"
Kyrie and LeBron clearly haven’t had the best of relationships off the court. Even though they each went out of their way to praise each other to the media, things weren’t always as good as they seemed.
In LeBron’s typical passive-aggressive style he posted videos on Instagram of him working out with Kevin Love in UCLA.
https://twitter.com/its_whitney/status/909802639474544641
Fortunately for us, we won’t have to wait long to see Kyrie and LeBron share the court once again.
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The Cavs open up the season at home against the Celtics. October 17th can’t get here fast enough.