The pivotal moment that led to Kyrie Irving’s trade request
An informal meeting of the minds may have led to Kyrie Irving’s request to be traded by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
By now, there are so many conflicting stories on what made Kyrie Irving request a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. However, there are consistent themes that have been present in nearly all of these reports.
(1) Irving wanted to evolve and challenge himself as a player, something he felt he had to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to do.
(2) Irving felt like the Cleveland Cavaliers “didn’t want [him] there”
The first point is more matter of fact than the latter. Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue rarely challenged Irving to evolve as a player, settling for the elite scoring machine that Irving was as a point guard. In addition, regardless of LeBron James leaving or staying in Cleveland, Irving would always be in James’ shadow. That’s something Irving found out early in his career and it was still true six seasons later.
The second point was more of a matter of dispute. Sure, Irving’s names were involved in trades but on the one hand, that was only after the Cavaliers found out Kevin Love’s standalone trade value wasn’t high enough but Irving’s was. Secondly, Irving has become a beloved fixture in Cleveland, fitting himself firmly in Cavaliers lore thanks to his heroics in the 2016 NBA Finals.
If he wasn’t already, he was well on his way to being the second-most important player in franchise history.
Nonetheless, it would seem that Irving did indeed have reason to believe he wasn’t wanted in Cleveland. A story from ESPN’s Dave McMenamin detailed a pivotal moment that was probably the “tipping point” for Irving:
"On the day of the NBA draft back in June, just days after Cleveland parted ways with former GM David Griffin, a robust Cavs contingent made up of front-office personnel, coaches and team support staff members held an impromptu, “what if?” discussion about Kyrie Irving‘s future, multiple team sources confirmed to ESPN.The discussion, characterized as “small talk” by one source familiar with its content, was less a formal straw poll of what the Cavs should do with their All-Star point guard should trade opportunities present themselves, and more of a thought exercise anticipating what the market could bear for a player of Irving’s caliber.The talk got back to Irving, multiple team sources told ESPN, and that served as the tipping point that led to Irving formally requesting a trade a little more than two weeks later."
McMenamin adds:
"Once a player feels expendable or undervalued from his own team, getting him to buy back in is a prickly proposition."
"It was a lapse in judgement that is looked back at by some still within the franchise as the consequential moment that led to the trade that sent Irving to Boston …Whether the decision to hold that discussion in front of so many people was a prudent one or not — and it should be noted that no one believes it was Altman who leaked that discussion to Irving or his agent, Jeff Wechsler.."
A lot to take in but, in a general sense, it would seem than informal meeting of the minds was the incident that led to Irving’s trade request. In this meeting, Irving and the trade value he held was a topic of discussion and that news got back to Irving. It depends on how the meeting was filtered from Irving’s source and what was said in the meeting but it was certainly enough for Irving to feel unwanted.
As McMenamin pointed out, it’s difficult to get a player to continue to buy-in once they feel unwanted. That would ultimately prove to be true because Irving’s request truly came out of nowhere. He may have felt like leaving was inevitable but he also may have played out his contract before signing with a franchise of his choosing.
The end to his Cavaliers tenure felt, in a word, rushed.