It came as a surprise to many that Kyrie Irving called former teammate LeBron James to hash out some issues that led to their separation, and Irving is now clarifying why it happened.
Irving felt he failed to address his conflicts with James while they played together with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and felt that he needed to apologize in order to move forward with his life and career.
“Well, I think that, you know, it takes a very, very strong individual to replay a lot of the experiences that you’ve had,” Irving told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN. “A lot of anger that you’ve had built up, where you didn’t address the situation and you allowed it to fester. And then it was just combustion. It came out and it just … you realize, like, ‘Hey, man, I didn’t have to deal with that the same way I dealt with that. I didn’t have to go about it that same way.’ Now, mind you, I have no regrets in terms of any decision I made, going about my individual journey and what I want and foresee for my career.
“But for me, it’s just … apologizing, yeah, that was a step for me, just to move forward in my life.”
Irving’s time as the leader of the Boston Celtics has given him an understanding of what it takes to lead a young team, and that inspired him to call James to apologize for his conduct as a younger player in Cleveland. Irving has clearly had some growing pains adjusting to the role, and it gave him some added context to what happened with the Cavaliers.
