Former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue is interested in getting back together with superstar point guard Kyrie Irving, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
“Tyronn Lue wants another chance to coach Kyrie Irving,” wrote Bondy.
“The former Cavaliers coach is, in fact, interested in the [Brooklyn] Nets gig, according to a source, following a Yahoo! report that Irving prefers Lue on Brooklyn’s sideline.”
Earlier this season, Kenny Atkinson was dismissed as the Nets head coach, partly because he didn’t see eye to eye with Irving or Kevin Durant.
Since then, there has been speculation that Irving has been pining for Lue to become his team’s next coach.
Although there was friction between the two when they were both in Cleveland, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon believes that they may be past that.
“I think there was so much there between Kyrie and Ty that you would say this is an absurd idea that Kyrie would want to play for him again. But also I think Kyrie has gotten over his Cleveland stuff,” Vardon said on The Athletic’s Tampering podcast. “We had the very public discussion last season about Kyrie and LeBron and sort of how Kyrie viewed his time with LeBron and what Kyrie wishes he would’ve done things differently. So I guess you could have the same idea with Ty.”
Lue was courted by the Los Angeles Lakers last year to become their head coach, which was a job that would’ve reunited him with LeBron James. However, the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement on the terms of a contract.
The Nets, of course, are expecting to become a championship-caliber squad next season when Durant returns from his ruptured Achilles.
That could give Lue the chance to coach an elite team again, just as he did when he helped Cleveland win its first-ever NBA championship in 2016.
