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After making the NBA Finals in three straight seasons, Kyrie Irving requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, sending shockwaves throughout the NBA.
After the Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals, it looked like LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving would run things back. After all, they had won the Eastern Conference in the last three seasons.
In 2018, the Cavaliers would once again make the Finals on the back of James, although they did so without Irving, who requested a trade the previous summer. Cleveland sent him to the Boston Celtics, ending the “father and son” relationship between Irving and James, which was one of the reasons he requested a trade in the first place.
Irving recently shed some light on why he demanded a trade, and he doesn’t blame James at all.
Kyrie Irving breaks silence on 2017 trade request
Irving has an odd relationship with the spotlight. Some seasons, like his recent stints with the Dallas Mavericks, he seems content to play second fiddle and simply enjoy basketball.
During his seasons with the Celtics and Brooklyn Nets, however, Irving seemed to relish the attention, highlighted by outlandish behavior and soundbites. Apparently, during his time in Cleveland, he wanted to fly under the radar, although playing next to James made it impossible.
“When you’re playing with someone like Bron…it’s a different journey, you’re automatically expected to be at the top of the league,” Irving said on a livestream. “Every time you play with Bron, it’s going to be a lot of media attention, a lot of narratives, spun narratives, politics, a lot of s— that people don’t see in front of the camera.”
Irving understands that it’s James’ stardom, not a desire for attention, that makes him a media darling, and doesn’t blame James for making Cleveland an unpleasant environment.
“It’s not that I disliked playing with Bron at any time, it was just literally my time to move on,” he clarified.
Since the trade, James and Irving seem to be cordial with one another, if not downright friendly, and James has been linked to the Mavericks in trade rumors, suggesting that a reunion might be in the cards.
Kyrie Irving blames the NBA Draft
Coming out of Duke, Irving was picked first overall by Cleveland in the 2011 NBA Draft. He would spend three seasons on the Cavs without James, and claimed that playing for a bad team caused him to develop “bad habits.” He was checked out of Cleveland basically before he even got there.
As a rookie, he had no say in where he got drafted, and he thinks first-year players should have a bit more autonomy.
“I would have loved to choose the franchise I wanted to go to,” he added. “I would have loved to develop next to some of my favorite players and some of my favorite people, you know, because being a young player when you’re on a team, that’s not winning a lot of games. It’s a lot of bad habits that form, and that’s what ended up happening to me.”
By the time his fourth season rolled around, the Cavs added elite veterans like James and Love, but for his first three seasons, he had little leadership and guidance, and he thought the entire situation was not suited for his success, resulting in him taking control of his career.
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