Kryie Says Byrie to Cavs
This NBA off-season has been one of the more entertaining in recent memory.
Draft night saw the Bulls ship out franchise cornerstone Jimmy Butler to the frozen winter climes of Minnesota.
Chris Paul decided to leave the City of Angels to join forces with the Beard in Houston, with a little help of capolgoist Dayrl Morey and much to the chagrin of the graphics dude at our Fanorama store.
As if he doesn't already have enough to do. They're swamped over there.
Anyway, the Pacers moved on from the Paul George era to rebuild, giving Brodie Westbrook a new buddy to hang with in OKC.
Just when it looked like the summer couldn’t get any more intruiging for NBA fans, they were gifted a rumor with league-shaking implications.
On what seemed like a regular Friday afternoon, Brian Windhorst dropped a major bomb. Not about his buddy LeBron James, but about the Cavaliers' point guard, Kyrie Irving.
Reportedly Irving wants out of Cleveland, as the four-time All-Star has made it known to team owner Dan Gilbert, who's now spending his days trying to minimize the PR damage.
Why would Kyrie want outta Cleveland?
- The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame there is pretty damn cool,
- The Cuyahoga River hasn't caught fire since 1969,
- The Indians are trending these days, and
- The Cavs are still the defending NBA Eastern Conference champs, for what that was worth.
Yeah, there was that. Apparently, if you've already joined 'em, you can beat it. Or something.
Apparently, tired of playing Robin ...
... Irving wants to go back to being The Dude on his own team.
He should know, though, there's only one Capital-D Dude:
If nothing else, the Dubs' drubbing of Cleveland should've taught him that multi-dudes is the NBA power trend these days. As it should be.
Diana Ross was better as part of the Supremes, too.
While the desire to be the star is not unique to Irving, his desire to no longer play alongside James is an odd one.
LeBron's often seen as a good teammate who helps make those around him play up to and beyond their talent level.
But Kyrie may really be frustrated, considering he was going to be the Cavaliers' savior after LeBron abandoned it.
According to Windhorst, Irving chose the Spurs, Knicks, Heat, and Timberwolves as his preferred landing spots.
He's under contract for the next two years, so he likely doesn’t have the leverage to decide where he ends up. However, if Irving really does want out of Cleveland so badly that he's willing to forego another shot at another championship as well as a supermax deal in 2019, than he's seriobeyondus about waning out.
While Irving wouldn't confirm the trade request, his refusal to deny them shows that there's at least a few embers under all this smoke.
Not surprisingly, LeBron was reportedly devastated about Irving’s trade request.
Was he so upset at Irving for wanting out that he leaked the request to the media?
Career foghorn Stephen A Smith and his sources sure seem to think so.
Above all else, the Cavs need to keep LeBron happy, and the last thing they need is for him to be mad at his teammates for not having the 'drive to win' or something like that.
Cleveland didn't need this sorta turmoil right now, what with season-ticket renewals and the like in full gear.
But for fans of the other 29 teams, the winds of change may be carrying a spark of intrigue, themselves.