By now it’s pretty clear, Kyrie Irving was over playing with LeBron James. While the jury is still out as to whether that was the best move career-wise, Cleveland.com has provided some insight as to why the Cavs opted to trade Irving instead of letting the two ride it out this season.
According to multiple unnamed sources, Irving threatened to sit out the season and have surgery on his knee after asking owner Dan Gilbert to trade him.
Irving reportedly needs minor knee surgery for swelling and occasional pain. This would be a follow up to the surgery he had in 2015 during the NBA Finals. Kyrie reportedly told the Cavs he would skip training camp to get the procedure.
So basically, Cleveland would have had a guard recovering from surgery regardless, so they opted for trading Kyrie to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets‘ 2018 first-round pick. Kyrie was also upset that Cavs GM David Griffin was no longer with the franchise.
On the LeBron side of things, he doesn’t hold the same feelings for Kyrie that Irving reportedly does for James. In fact, when rumors of Kyrie’s trade request began to surface, LeBron was upset and went to management to ask that he NOT be traded.
On the bright side, LeBron did pick Kyrie for his All-Star team…
Currently the trade looks like a win for the Celtics and the Cavs are sort of just hanging out, trying to figure this team. Now comes word that Dwyane Wade will miss time away from the team to deal with a personal matter in Chicago. This is different from Derrick Rose leaving the team to decide if he wanted to still continue playing basketball.
It also comes on the heels of a team meeting this week where Kevin Love received a bunch of heat from teammates because he was sick and left the building during a blowout loss to the OKC Thunder last weekend.
Let’s not forget how Jae Crowder, JR Smith and Tristian Thompson are ineffective this season. You have to look at that Kardashian curse as a possible culprit.
Oh yeah, Isaiah Thomas is still working himself into the Cavs line up… and still trying to get that max money pay day.
Which may or may not be Dan Gilbert’s issue, as per Stephen A. Smith, Gilbert is looking to sell the team.
We’ll see who is still left standing in June.
