Kyrie Irving sent shockwaves across the basketball world last summer when he asked the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade him. Now four months removed from a deal being finalized to send him to the Boston Celtics, Irving says a big part of the story surrounding his departure has gone untold.
In a lengthy feature that explored more in-depth how Irving left Cleveland, ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan reported that the Cavs actually explored the possibility of trading Irving in June — one month before word surfaced that he wanted out. Irving says that is one of the ways in which the circumstances surrounding his trade request became “distorted” by the media.
“I didn’t feel the need to say anything because I knew the truth, and so did they,” Irving said. “So it didn’t matter what others said. … They didn’t want me there.”
With Irving having won a championship and getting the opportunity to play with one of the greatest players in NBA history, it made little sense that he suddenly wanted no part of the team that drafted him No. 1 overall. According to MacMullan, the Cavs were in trade talks involving Irving in mid-June, not long before former general manager David Griffin parted ways with the team. The star point guard was reportedly hurt by that.
In mid-June, shortly before Griffin left, team and league sources confirm, the Cavs explored a three-way deal with Phoenix and Indiana that would have shipped Irving and Frye to the Suns and brought Eric Bledsoe and Paul George to Cleveland. The Suns resisted, unwilling to part with their No. 4 pick, which they planned to use to draft Josh Jackson.
No formal offer was made by any of the teams, but news of this potential transaction stung Irving, who, sources close to him say, became convinced that LeBron’s camp, which also represents Bledsoe, orchestrated the trade talks.
MacMullan’s sources claim it was Griffin who initiated the trade talks on his own — not at the request of LeBron’s camp. Griffin was said to be close with Irving, and there’s a belief that he sensed Irving’s unhappiness and believed a trade request would be coming.
According to MacMullan, Irving and his agent said down with Dan Gilbert on July 9 and pressed the Cavs owner about LeBron’s future with the team. Gilbert then asked Irving for his preferred trade destinations, and the Celtics were not among them. However, Gilbert later became interested in the thought of acquiring the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick from Boston, and he went to James to see if he could try to secure a commitment from the future Hall of Famer before making any deals. James reportedly would not commit beyond his current contract, which he can opt out of after the season.
There has been a ton of “he said, she said” surrounding the Irving trade, but the 25-year-old obviously feels the image that has been portrayed of him is not accurate. He indicated that his reasons for wanting a trade were misconstrued.
“But there’s a misconception how all this went down,” Irving said. “I was traded to Boston. I had no say at all in where they sent me. There were no conversations like, ‘OK, this is an opportunity we can pursue.’ It wasn’t a recruitment process.
“I thought there would be a sense of confidentiality on everyone’s part. I’m not going to point fingers, even though I know fingers will get pointed anyway, but the way it happened was disappointing. It was hurtful how it spun out. It turned into a narrative where everyone got to have an opinion on why I should do this, why I should do that. I’m this. I’m that. I’m selfish. That’s fine because that’s not reality. It was just a bunch of noise.”
We have heard many, many different storylines about the Irving trade, including one recently about what Cavs coach Tyronn Lue tried to do to stop it from happening. While it may be true that the Cavs tried to trade Irving a month before he demanded to be moved, it would make little sense for them to do that if both he and James were happy with the situation. At least one of the two star players — and quite possibly both — wanted a change.
