LeBron James and Ty Lue both dismissed a report from Monday night that said James was pushing the Cleveland Cavaliers to acquire Carmelo Anthony and even trade Kevin Love to do so.
The Cavaliers beat the Washington Wizards 140-135 in overtime on Monday night, with both James and Love playing big roles. LeBron scored 32 points, had seven rebounds and a career-high 17 assists. Love scored 39 points, made six 3-pointers, and had 12 rebounds in the win.
After the victory, James ripped apart a report that said he wanted the Cavs to acquire Anthony from the Knicks, calling the report and reporter who authored it — Frank Isola of the New York Daily News — trash.
“It’s trash. And the guy who wrote it is trash too for writing that, especially during a game like that,” said James after the game. “It’s always about outside noise and that’s outside news for us. Our GM will do a great job of figuring out if we need something else, but right now we’re in a good place.”
Head coach Ty Lue was similarly dismissive:
Ty Lue on the trade rumors: "Kevin (Love) should be happy that teams want him, but he's not going anywhere"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 7, 2017
And Love himself called it a “lie.”
KLove on the rumor: "It's a lie. What do they say? A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put his pants on"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) February 7, 2017
It’s fitting that the report came out on a night when Love had a monstrous game for the Cavaliers. It’s as if he found out about the report while playing and used it as motivation to show the team why they shouldn’t ever consider trading him, because he played arguably his best game of the season.
Anyone who thinks the Cavs trading Love to the Knicks for Anthony needs to ask themselves whether ‘Melo could make this kind of a pass:
Wild pass from Love & #LeBronJames ties it up off the glass, sending the @cavs @WashWizards game to OT pic.twitter.com/DfVlOB51EK
— NBA Canada (@NBACanada) February 7, 2017
In addition to James and Lue denying the report, multiple reporters also refuted the report, including one who quoted a source as saying it was “totally untrue.”
