Kyrie Irving's Loss Leaves LeBron James Facing Another Lost Year of His Prime
OAKLAND — LeBron James sat at the podium Friday, still slick with sweat, following a solo spectacle, a 20-minute shooting workout on the main floor of Oracle Arena, one that predictably sidetracked both the impressed and bemused media members talking to many of his teammates. One teammate, the one who was the day's hottest topic, hadn't been in attendance anyway; instead, Kyrie Irving had been excused from all team activities because he was receiving further evaluation on his damaged left knee.
When James' own interview session started, maybe he knew more about the severity of Irving's situation than he was letting on. Maybe he knew that Irving's left knee cap was fractured and would require surgery, keeping the All-Star point guard out for the rest of the NBA Finals and necessitate four months of recovery, as the Cavaliers later announced. Or maybe James didn't. Either way, one of his quotes captured what we now all know to be the Cavaliers' conundrum, even as James stopped well short of capitulation.
"Well, there are a few things that you would love to have going late in the season," James said. "That's being healthy, having a great rhythm—and then you need a little luck as well. We've had a great rhythm. We haven't had much luck, and we haven't been healthy. But I haven't gotten discouraged."
James has made stronger statements, but rarely a truer one. We tend to underrate luck as a component of team success, perhaps because it's impossible to forecast, debate or quantify. Luck is what it is, and it does what it does.
And, now, it is doing in the Cavaliers.
The odd part is luck mostly did the Cavaliers right in the regular season, at least when compared to many other teams, such as the Thunder and Pacers and Bulls and Heat. Because with the exception of James' brief winter hiatus, Cleveland's major stars were regularly available. And while they did lose Anderson Varejao to an Achilles injury, it occurred early enough in the season for them to recover and reload, with GM David Griffin smartly acquiring Timofey Mozgov to plug the middle, a move that helped the team take off.
But that luck has turned chilly in the spring, first when Celtics forward Kelly Olynyk yanked Kevin Love's shoulder out of its socket, and then when Irving's foot and knee started hobbling him.
Their luck, as it turned out, has had not only terrible intentions but terrible timing.
Because while the Cavaliers found a different way to play without Love, maybe even a better way, Irving's exit simply puts too much burden on James, at a time he's already toting nearly everything.
"I'm excited to be in this moment once again," James said, trying to set a tone for his team, "and I'm going to stay strong for my team, no matter who is or is not in the lineup."
The team on the other side, though, appears too strong to be matched merely by his will. James may not have beaten Golden State anyway, not this postseason, not with his current cast, not with an isolation-heavy offense, not when he's being guarded initially by any one of four capable options while always watched by the other four Warriors on the floor.
But he certainly can't beat them, with their splashy shooters and sticky defenders, when they've seemingly signed luck to a season-long contract to serve as their sixth man. The Warriors have largely avoided major injuries, and they've had the depth to absorb whatever they've encountered, whether it was David Lee missing most of the early season or Marreese Speights missing some of the playoffs. Meanwhile, they keep catching playoff opponents without starting point guards, whether it was the Pelicans' Jrue Holiday for the second game of the first round, or Memphis' Mike Conley for the first game of the second round, or Houston's Patrick Beverley for the entire Western Conference Finals.
That doesn't mean an asterisk should be applied to what they're accomplishing. They've been the top team this season, and it hasn't been especially close. None of their contemporaries and few of their forerunners have been as exceptional on both offense and defense, or able to play so many different ways.
But it can't be ignored either that, while you are what your record says you are, fortune can certainly play a role in that record.
James will press on, trying to put as much pressure on the Warriors defense as possible, but it's difficult to see him stealing more than a single game at this stage, considering how Irving was the only other significant Cavaliers contributor Thursday—not only recording 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but also four steals as part of one of the more dynamic defensive efforts of his career.
"He didn't look hurt at all," Warriors guard Leandro Barbosa said.
And then, in overtime, as Irving was approaching his 44th minute, he did. Badly hurt, after he tried to drive against Klay Thompson, he then had to limp to the locker room, where he would limp around some more before covering his face with a black towel.
Meanwhile, his father, Drederick, was taking it even worse, ranting openly to a crowd of acquaintances near the tunnel and later seen slamming a locker room door after a meeting with, among others, Griffin. It's no secret the Cavaliers and the Irving "camp" have been on different pages for weeks now, ever since this injury odyssey started, supposedly in Game 2 of the Celtics series. Irving scored 56 points over the first two games, but his play slipped some after that, and Derrick Rose was running circles around him early in the second round. Sources say Irving was "sulking" some behind the scenes until coach David Blatt revealed publicly that the point guard was dealing with a couple of ailments—first the foot and then the knee. That helped relieve some of the scrutiny, and Irving acknowledged it eased his mind.
But in the conference finals, the Cavaliers stopped sounding quite as supportive, with Blatt referring to the situation as one of "pain tolerance" after shootaround on the morning of Game 2. Then, 90 minutes before tipoff, the team put out a release that revealed Irving had gotten a second opinion with Dr. James Andrews in Florida—one the team had recommended to put his mind at ease. The release, however, further confused matters, since it indicated the previous diagnosis had been confirmed, while adding that Irving was out for that night's contest. That made it sound like Irving had chosen not to play.
It turned out Andrews had altered the treatment. After missing two games, Irving returned to play 22 encouraging minutes in Game 4, a win that gave him a week to heal for the NBA Finals. Mixed reports followed, and while some in the organization wondered aloud how he'd perform against the Warriors, it seemed for much of Thursday that either they, or Irving, had been sandbagging.
He was that good in Game 1 against Golden State.
But now his first NBA Finals are over, and the blame game has begun, from the media, from the fans and, apparently, if what was witnessed late Thursday was indicative of what's been occurring behind the scenes, even from some in his camp. Maybe especially from them. This is where everyone should be cautious. It is difficult at times like these to assess what is cause and effect—a sore knee leading to a fractured one—or what is coincidence. It is dangerous to accuse the Cavaliers of carelessness, when it comes to handling his situation, whether playing him or not, or playing him heavy minutes, without knowing all of the medical factors involved.
Still, it is also true that at this time of year, players are expected to play, unless they are either entirely immobile or running the risk of long-term damage. They know that's the deal, and they deal with it. Take, for instance, James' prior running mate, Dwyane Wade, who sat out plenty of games during the regular season but played in 86 of 87 in the postseason when playing with James. Wade knew what time it was. And he also knew, as someone edging into his 30s, that his own clock was ticking fast.
Now James' clock is, at least when it comes to his prime. He's 30 now, probably with three to five years left near his peak. He took two weeks off during the season to deal with knee and back trouble, but he never would have missed a game for either in the postseason; he's never missed any of his teams' 173 postseason games, whether playing for Cleveland or Miami, even while dealing with a sore back, elbow, knee or, frequently, ankle.
Irving is 23.
It would be natural for there to be some tension between timelines, that of a gifted young talent, still maturing as a professional, and that of a seasoned franchise player and an urgent organization who, together, understand the need to capitalize now—an awareness so keen that the Cavaliers dealt several future assets to add more established talent that could help take one, or more, of the next three or four titles. Magic Johnson won his last championship at 28, Larry Bird at 29, Kobe Bryant at 31 and Michael Jordan at 35, and while there were extenuating circumstances for each—from an HIV diagnosis to back trouble to front office turmoil to temporary retirement—it shows how there are no guarantees.
James knows this. His veteran teammates know this. Front office officials know this.
In that context, it would be natural for there to have been some pressure, subtle or explicit, for Irving to push through, especially if the testing wasn't alarming, especially if it was just about some pain.
And yet it would also be natural for Irving, and those around him, to hold somewhat contrary concerns. His prime is way ahead of him. You'd think other championship chances would be, too, especially for as long as he's playing with James.
It should be noted, though, that many premier players thought they would get another opportunity for a ring, only to learn later in their careers that an earlier one had actually been their best shot. Everyone believed the 2012 Oklahoma City Thunder were destined to always play together deep into June, but then James Harden left and Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant got hit by the same horrible luck that has hit Irving now, suffering injuries that they couldn't play through. James has been in six NBA Finals.
This likely won't be his last Finals, since there's no clear challenger in the East.
Still, this year's Finals is likely lost—and with it another year of his prime, not in terms of starting to transform the Cavaliers organization but certainly in the prism of his championship legacy.
Lost to the better team, sure, as the Warriors empirically were even when both sides were whole.
But lost, as well, to a little too much of the worst kind of luck.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a co-host of NBA Sunday Tip, 9-11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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