OT: Kyrie Irving Requests Trade From Cavs
Well, that's one we didn't see coming.
Kyrie Irving requests a trade from Cavs, sources told ESPN. LeBron James was blindsided and is disappointed: https://t.co/54afvYge9V
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 21, 2017
I'm not a particular fan of his (though he is an excellent player) and despite their heel turn still find the Warriors more enjoyable, but this seems like a terrible thing for the NBA. Unless the Cavs can somehow, miraculously retool around an aging Lebron, this leaves basically one terrific team in the league and a bunch of other teams fighting to be the last one in line for the guillotine.
Maybe he'll change his mind, who knows. And I'm not interested in the "selfishness" angle--people complain about players wanting to be the star, but then when a player goes to a loaded team to win, they complain about that too. So, yeah, nobody will like anything that he does regardless.
The Warriors were darlings of the nation in the '15 season, and ransacked the world in 15-16, got to the Finals... and blew a 3-1 lead with Draymond being a total boor and Steph Curry suffering a permanent blot on his rep. The were absolute faces until then. Now, if not disliked by everybody, they've come back to the pack. People want other teams to be good too.
The Warriors heel turn has more to do with their super team acquisition of Durant than anything. In general, people aren't fans of the consolidation of power in the NBA. The Warriors were still likeable to a lot of neutral fans because they were homegrown. Taking Durant away from the Thunder both ruined that and ruined the Thunder, who also happened to be one of their major contenders for the Western throne. That's the heel turn.
I still enjoy watching the Warriors immensely. Their ball movement is incredible and the distribution of shots is impressive for a star laden team. They're fun to watch from a pure basketball perspective, when you take out the personalities.
It's not like they took Kevin Durant and the team away from anybody, or city.
I Sea(ttle) what you did there.
I'm sure BronxBlue could explain this more eloquently than me, but a "heel turn" is when a good wrestler turns bad. The prime example of this is when Hulk Hogan turned in his yellow and red good-guy costume, dyed his beard black, and joined the NWO. A good guy leaving a selfish guy to join a bunch of other good guys is not a heel turn. His motives were pure - he wanted to win a championship. There's nothing wrong with that in my book.
I'm sure there's a geographic component to this. But in simple terms, the Warriors are not the old-school Oakland Raiders or Bad Boy Pistons. Try as hard as I might, I just can't dislike Durant, and the Warriors play an exciting brand of basketball that all the playground kids are embracing.
LeBron, on the other hand, was a heel and doubled-down on his heelness by forming a super team in Miami. One could argue he was just trying to win a championship a la Durant, but in my opinion, he was feeding his ego, trying to become the greatest basketball player of all time by assembling a better resume than Jordan's.
P.S. In case it wasn't obvious, I don't like LeBron and I've never liked LeBron. He comes off as a big phony to me. There's nothing authentic about him. It all seems so calculating.
LeBron James leaving Cleveland for Miami was one thing. The way he did it--the TV show spectacle to announce it--was a very tacky move, adding insult to injury for the Cleveland fans.
He isn't going to go to a better team than what he has in Cleveland right now.
Also, if this happens, Lebron is about to go into career Purgatory. No chance of catching up with the Warriors now.
Haha! Stupid Lebron. Wonder what his next "decision" will be!
Lakers
IIRC he can opt out for Decision Version 2.0 next June.
It's not like the guy and Dan Gilbert get along according to the CLE media. I live close enough that this is the sports radio I am subjected to daily.
Don't know about "career purgatory". His second term in Cleveland would probably end with a whimper, but the speculation has always been that he'd go elsewhere next year. Very early for speculation, obviously, but there are any number of potential destinations/free agent combinations where he could go back to competing with GS.
How long does LeBron want to keep playing? He's only 32, but it's an "old" 32 with all the miles on his tires (14 years in the NBA, 100-some playoff games and a few Olympics).
Is there any data to support this line of thinking ? If Lebron was 32 with 12 years in the NBA, 25 playoff games, and 0 Olympics, would be be in better physical shape ?
People act like every league every has had super high levels of parity. The only difference between the NBA right now and the NBA at almost any other post-Russell Celtics time is that the Warriors are so good that they seemingly don't have a real challenger. And is that really any different than during the Bulls dynasty?
Take 10% off the Warriors and there would be three to five teams that could conceivably win the title if things go right. That's pretty much where the NBA has always been.
It's not so much the lack of parity that bothers people, imo, but the naked opportunism of it. The NBA, more than other league, has players who very openly only want to live in either hotspots like Miami and the Bay Area or make it huge in LA or NYC. Star free agents don't rush to San Antonio like they do to those places. There's an increasing sense that the NBA is evolving into a Harlem Globetrotters vs Washington Generals league where teams like Milwaukee and Denver exist primarily to be beaten by the super teams of stars wanting bigger shoe deals by signing together for the Nets.
all he needs to do is start talks with the Pistons.
Side note: Chauncy Billups isn't having any second thoughts about turning down that job.
The Cavs are imploding and it is probably all Dan Gilbert's fault. They didn't get any better this offseason while GS did. They let their beloved GM go because of a power struggle between him and Gilbert. The noise around LBJ leaving after this year is getting louder and louder and seems more and more realistic. And now this...
And I sit here watching with glee because...well...it is ohio after all.
Gilbert got his title now he doesn't give a f...
Fired GM
Kyrie wants out
Lebron could bail
Free agents / trade targets told "you don't want to come here"
I work for a Gilbert org and let me say, the guy thinks he is the second coming because he stumbled ass backwards into major money. He has pretensions of being Steve Jobs without the wisdom and acts like stories like "I decided to get into mortgages because they required no state level licensing and had low start up capital" or "I decided to buy into Detroit because they were literally giving away skyscrapers" makes him sound like a genius.
He's borderline insufferable and will probably destroy the Cavs again.
I'm not sure that the Cavs are a lock for the finals this year, even with Kyrie. They're basically just a year older, with a few interchangealbe parts being re-arranged. LeBron has been defying time for a while now, but you have to expect some drop in performance at some point. Meanwhile, the Celtics got better, and the Raptors and Wiz should at least hold pat from last year. And even though they're probably still too young for a deep run, I wouldn't be totally shocked if the Bucks were able to win a series against the Cavs -- they've got a ton of young talent that's been gaining experience, and they could take a real leap this year.
have been saying about Lebron-led teams for 3-4 years now. "Look, they didn't get any better and are now one year older." They only lost 1 game in the playoffs before the finals. They don't need to get better and arguably they could get worse and still be by far the best team in the East. There is absolutely no way the Bucks win more than 1 game against the Cavs next year. The Celtics are the only team that got better in the East from a contending standpoint and even they barely got better. Heyward isn't a great player on either side of the ball by any advanced metric and is a pretty good player to my eye test. Really good on offense, OK to slightly above that on defense, and having Gobert behind you makes you a better defender.
This is what people have been saying about Lebron-led teams for 3-4 years now. "Look, they didn't get any better and are now one year older
Well, you would normally expect a 14-year NBA veteran to start losing a step. OTOH, the NBA's PED policies are pretty weak...
Jordan's last title was at age 35 if im not mistaken.
Jordan did become more of a jump shooter as the Bulls' reign went on, and less likely to dunk over guys like Patrick Ewing. LeBron somehow doesn't seem to be losing a step despite having put his body through the ringer for almost a decade and a half. That's curious.
Doping's always been part of the culture of sports, and I wouldn't assume MJ was clean either. The stuff available to athletes now is a lot more advanced than in his day, though.
even more weird is he wouldnt be a top banana in San Antonio nor in Minnesota anymore. Only in Miami and NYK would he be top banana .... plus even weirder is that he would then play with Waiters again who hated eachother so much so that they had to do a press conference to say how much they didnt hate each other.
I love Kyrie to the moon and back. But if he fought with Waiters and now wants out from LeBron and the clear 2nd best team in the league (best in the East hands down) then maybe it's on him.
As a Cavs season ticket holder, Kyrie shoe collector, and overall imbesile this one will really hurt me, fellas.
I think Kyrie himself explained it. He has always wanted to be one of the greats, but playing in the shadow of Lebron will never allow him to do that. So he'll leave.
As a Suns fan I like this. Too bad we aren't on his reported "list of 4 teams"
he doesnt have a no trade clause and still has a couple years left.