There was a lot of drama around Kyrie Irving’s exit from the LeBron James Cavaliers in the summer of 2017, just a year after they had teamed up to bring a title to Cleveland, with Irving hitting the biggest shot in Cleveland history. The spin at the time was that Irving was very unhappy his name came up in trade rumors and there was speculation — which was never backed up by any evidence — that LeBron had wanted Irving gone. Irving may never have wanted LeBron to return to Cleveland in the first place.
None of that is how Irving sees it — and he doesn’t have any bad blood toward LeBron and would be open to playing with him again (which plays into some speculation about what LeBron might do next summer). Here is what Irving said on a recent Twitch stream.
“When you’re playing with someone like [James], or somebody you like to compare him to, it’s a different animal. It’s a different journey, you’re automatically expected to be at the top of the league. Every time you play with him it’s going to be a lot of media attention, a lot of narratives, spun narratives, politics, a lot of s*** that people don’t see in front of the camera. And for me I was just a young person trying to figure it out. It’s not that I disliked playing with him at any time, it was just literally my time to move on.”
Irving went from being the favorite child and No. 1 pick in Cleveland to the No. 2 option next to LeBron, and on some nights the No. 3 option next to peak Kevin Love. That changed the dynamic for Irving, who was entering his fourth NBA season when LeBron decided to return to Cleveland from Miami.
“Being a young player, when you’re on a team that’s not winning a lot of games, it’s a lot of bad habits that form, and that’s what ended up happening to me when I was very young. I had a lot of bad habits. I was not a winner, I was not a good loser at all. I take my accountability, I had a lot of bad habits. That came from losing games and trying to get buckets all the time. I know it may have been beautiful for everybody to watch and getting all the highlights and accolades, but all I really wanted to do was win.”
Ultimately, Irving was traded to Boston, and what started well there ended poorly. Irving then signed with Brooklyn to team up with Kevin Durant on a roster that never lived up to its potential, and now he is in Dallas with Anthony Davis and Cooper Flagg (although Irving is expected to miss much of the 2025-26 season recovering from a torn ACL suffered last March). There is speculation about LeBron to Dallas in the summer of 2026 — fueled by his and Davis’ simultaneous, cryptic Instagram posts — but we are a long way off from that potential reunion.
Just know Irving is in a different, and better, mental place than when these stars played together before.
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