To this day, it feels like Kyrie Irving was the best-fit running mate that LeBron James ever had.
Sure, LeBron won two titles with Dwyane Wade in Miami (and reached four NBA Finals in total), and he also won the bubble 'chip with Anthony Davis on the Lakers. But there's something about the LeBron-Kyrie partnership that belongs in a different stratosphere.
LeBron and Kyrie's skill sets meshed far better than LeBron and Wade's, and let's face it, the LeBron-Kyrie duo achieved far greater glories (2016!) than James and Davis.
LeBron and Kyrie were a basketball match made in heaven that challenged the Warriors' dynasty year after year. Then, in the summer of 2017, it all came to a halt. Irving wanted out, requested a trade, and was dealt to the Boston Celtics. But why?
In a new interview with Shannon Sharpe, Iman Shumpert, who was on those Cavs teams, revealed his theory as to why Kyrie bolted and left Bron behind to pick up the pieces.
Kyrie's Kobe tendencies made him want to leave LeBron
Although Kyrie's Cleveland exit has been branded by some as one of jealousy and betrayal, for Shumpert, it was more about Irving's competitive spirit.
Shumpert said he wasn't surprised that Kyrie wanted to leave because, in his words, "Kyrie's a Kobe guy. Kyrie wanted to beat LeBron."
The Kobe comp makes a lot of sense here. Shumpert brought up Kobe's desire to be better than Michael Jordan, but the more appropriate parallel would have been to talk about how Kobe wanted to make sure he was seen as a better player than Shaquille O'Neal.
Like LeBron and Kyrie, Shaq and Kobe achieved championship success together. And just like Kobe wanted to eventually prove he could win without Shaq, it sounds like Kyrie may have had similar sentiments about his partnership with Bron.
And as Shumpert asserted, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just how Kyrie is built.
Sharpe pushed back on Shumpert, saying that Kyrie should have been content with riding in the passenger's seat, mostly because he was never going to become an alpha somewhere else at the level of overcoming LeBron's greatness.
But, as Shumpert once again explained, that's not really the point. The point is that Kyrie could not resist trying the near-impossible, and that's a huge element of Kyrie's greatness, just as it was with Kobe.
Kyrie's career has gone in a myriad of directions since 2017, including a path back to the NBA Finals in 2024. Through it all, he's continued to show that he's the best ball-handler of all-time and one of the most talented guards to ever play the game, period.
At the same time, fans are still wondering what could have happened if Kyrie never left Cleveland. How many more rings would this historically dominant duo have competed for and won? Would this have enhanced or hurt Kyrie's individual legacy?
We'll never know.