Kyrie Irving‘s trade demand seemed to come out of the blue when the news broke several weeks ago. Since then, countless theories have been created to try and explain why Irving seems so desperate to no longer play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Thanks to ESPN’s David McMenamin, we might have our answer. According to the NBA reporter, we now know that trouble may have been brewing between Irving and his teammates dating as far back as the early rounds of the 2017 NBA Playoffs.
McMenamin offered his insight on a possible trade with the Phoenix Suns when he joined “The BBall Breakdown” on Thursday. He expressed his belief that a trade with the Suns might be difficult to achieve because former Cavs forward James Jones, who has intimate experience with how Irving behaves as a teammate, is now the vice president of basketball operations in Phoenix.
“I think I reported this on SportsCenter this week. He (Jones) saw Kyrie Irving in the playoffs this year – in between the first round, when they beat Indiana, and the second round, when they played Toronto – go consecutive days without speaking to a teammate at practice,” McMenamin said. “On that stage. It’s one thing to say people go through their ups and downs in the regular season. But when you get to the playoffs, when the main thing is the main thing, and we’re brothers, and we’re pulling together to get this thing done. Even at that level, there were still things that made him sullen or reclusive from his teammates. I’m not so sure if Phoenix would be interested in that type of deal. Now maybe James Jones has seen stuff that he knows just how special Kyrie Irving is and he could sell the franchise on that, but part of me thinks more that it would be a caution flag coming from James Jones.”
If these reports are accurate, it seems that despite his undeniable talent, Irving has been a hindrance to the Cavaliers’ success for quite some time.
