Former Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue recently claimed that LeBron James was “crushed” to hear Kyrie Irving was being traded to the Celtics in 2017. This was just one year after their iconic comeback in the NBA Finals got the Cavaliers their first NBA championship.
But, according to Jeff Teague, LeBron James probably did not really care about Kyrie Irving or Anthony Davis getting traded from the Cavaliers or the Lakers, respectively. On the most recent episode of the Club 520 podcast, the former NBA champion Teague claimed that James’ reaction may not have been what Tyronn Lue claimed it to be.
“I’m starting to believe, I don’t think… I know LeBron gets people traded, but I don’t think he knows everything. Like, sometimes he probably doesn’t care, bro. Like to be real, like playing basketball, you really don’t care about other people. You honestly don’t.”
“I’m saying he’s still like when you hear Bron when he’s away from the cameras, and he’s just being normal. Like when he was golfing, you could tell Bron is like one of us still.”
“Like you know, when he goes home, he’s probably like, ‘Hey, man, we need this person. We need that person.’ Yeah. And then after a while, he was probably like, ‘I don’t give a f… like, ‘All right, bro. I’m going to LA anyway.’ Like he probably knew his plans already. Like, bro, I’m going to LA.”
Teague further goes on to ponder if James knew about Anthony Davis’ trade for Luka Doncic in February.
“Man, he probably was like, man, he’s on his way out. He probably ain’t care. He was probably like, ‘man, we can’t win with… we ain’t winning anyway. I don’t know. We’re about to get Luka. I bet we’re going to get Luka.”
“I’m sure he probably was like, ‘We don’t want Kyrie to leave.’ Like, but if Kyrie said, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ He was probably like, ‘F**k it. He doesn’t want to be here.’”
Teague has never played on the same team as any of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, or Anthony Davis. But Teague is speaking from an NBA player’s perspective and how they view their teammates. That while they could seem ‘crushed’ to the world, at the end of the day, it is a professional relationship that doesn’t really affect them in their personal lives.
In accordance with what Teague said, LeBron James probably realized after the 2016-17 season that the Cavaliers could not beat the Warriors anymore with Kevin Durant, and might as well let Kyrie Irving do what he wants and leave, while he himself planned to leave for the Lakers.
In my opinion, all of this is conjecture from Teague, and he cannot vouch for what he is saying to be true in this scenario. But even if it were, how would we ever know? Only if someone who knows the parties involved personally claims something like this should we take it seriously. Otherwise, it is just wild conjecture.
