Kyrie Irving was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers and even though his initial years involved some losing, all of that changed when LeBron James returned to join the team in 2014. Suddenly the Cavaliers were contenders and would go to the following 4 NBA Finals, including finally winning one historically from 3-1 down against the 73-win Golden State Warriors.
However, the Warriors signed Kevin Durant that summer, and the Cavaliers stood no chance against them despite making it back to the NBA Finals. Kyrie Irving left the Cavs to join the Boston Celtics, and the leading narrative was that he did it to get out of James’ shadow. Kyrie addressed that on a Twitch stream, as Reddit user ImDKingSama summarized, saying that his reason for leaving was different from the media narrative.
“After winning the championship in 2016, Kyrie was riding a high and went into next season playing his best ball and completely locked in.
“He points out he had some of the best numbers of his career that year, but also points out that he ended up with no individual awards. The season also ends with them losing to the KD Warriors, Kyrie points out that team is historic and despite the Cavs being very good they were down 3-0 and fought their hardest to win just 1 game.
“After the season, Kyrie decides to demand a trade because he wanted something new. He says he didn’t want to leave LeBron and was surprised that the media spun the story so much to have them against each other.”
Irving’s stint in Boston didn’t go so well either, with injuries derailing any chances of success, and Kyrie eventually leaving for the Brooklyn Nets after he promised he’d stay. Kyrie has been giving fans some excellent soundbites on Twitch, he recently mocked his haters on a stream. While Irving likely won’t be able to rewrite the narrative entirely, it’s always interesting to hear his side of the story.
