Charles Barkley Says Kyrie Irving Is 'Stupid' for Wanting Trade from Cavaliers

NBA Hall of Famer and Turner Sports analyst Charles Barkley doesn't understand why Kyrie Irving would want to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James for a bigger role elsewhere.

"You want to be on a good team. You want to play with other great players. This notion where you want to be the man, I just think is so stupid," he said during an interview on NBA TV. "If I got a chance to play with another great player, I want to do that. The objective is to win."

"When he was on a bad team and he was the man, I guarantee you that wasn't a lot of fun for him," he continued. "And now you want to leave the best player in the world. And listen, I hear all of this stuff about how LeBron casts a big shadow. He should cast a big shadow."

As Barkley noted, playing with any great player—he cited Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Shaquille O'Neal—means living under their proverbial shadow. But that's the price for giving yourself a chance to win championships.

"If you get a chance to play with great players, that's half the battle," Barkley noted.

You can see the full interview with Barkley below:

Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported July 24 that Irving, 25, has requested a trade from Cleveland this offseason, hoping to be more of a focal point for a team rather than continue to defer to James. Potential destinations were the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves, though given his lack of a no-trade clause, the Cavaliers are free to move him to any team.

To a degree, Irving's stance is justifiable. James' own future in Cleveland is unclear, and if he leaves in free agency, Irving could be stuck leading a team that was built around James and would struggle without him. Pre-empting that possibility and starting over in a new situation makes sense if Irving sees the writing on the wall in Cleveland.

But Barkley, at least, thinks Irving should align himself with James as long as he can.

"You wanna share the glory. You wanna win. Right now, there's only two, three, maybe four legitimate teams in the NBA," he concluded. "If you're not on one of those four or five teams, you're really just wasting your time for seven months. So I don't understand why you wouldn't want to play with LeBron. Listen, I wanna play with LeBron now!"