Kyrie Irving Reflects on 2017 Cavs Trade, Says It Was 'Time' to Leave LeBron James
Dallas Mavericks star point guard Kyrie Irving looks back on a key moment in his career with no regrets.
While discussing his trade request from the Cleveland Cavaliers that led to him being sent to the Boston Celtics in 2017, Irving explained that he grew wary of the extra attention that comes from playing alongside legendary forward LeBron James.
"When you're playing with someone like [James], or somebody you like to compare him to, it's a different animal," Irving said during a recent Twitch stream (h/t Jasmyn Wimbish of CBS Sports). "It's a different journey, you're automatically expected to be at the top of the league. Every time you play with [James] it's going to be a lot of media attention, a lot of narratives, spun narratives, politics, a lot of s--t 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 [James] at any time, it was just literally my time to move on."
Irving's surprising trade request came just a year after the Cavs pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history by overcoming a 3-1 deficit against the 73-9 Golden State Warriors to win the 2016 NBA championship. In three seasons alongside James, they guided Cleveland to three straight appearances in the NBA Finals.
In hindsight, Irving admits that he didn't have the maturity required to handle things when James returned to the Cavaliers in 2014 and formed a Big 3 with him and Kevin Love.
"I would've loved to choose the franchise I wanted to go to," Irving said. "I would've loved to develop next to some of my favorite players. 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."
Unfortunately, Irving has yet to reach the pinnacle again, as he has bounced around the league a bit from the Celtics to the Brooklyn Nets and now the Mavs. He helped lead Dallas to an appearance in the 2024 NBA Finals, where it lost to Boston in five games.
Still, Irving sounds content with his decision to leave Cleveland and how things have played out since.
