Kyrie Irving Never Wanted LeBron James to Return to Cleveland

Reports in the media have described Kyrie Irving‘s relationship with LeBron James very tamely if you believe a good portion of what Cavaliers beat writers Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com had to say on the radio earlier recently. While, Irving was looking to get out of the shadow of King James in The Land and be the man on his own team, their working relationship was worse than you may have thought.

In their conversation, they spoke about how LeBron once told Kyrie after a Miami Heat game that he could return one day, how much he hated the “little brother” treatment and hazing off the court, was talked out of a trade after the 2016 NBA Finals, and the fact that there were some playoff years where Kyrie would not talk to anybody from the organization at all.

Lloyd: “It has been made clear to me by multiple people, Kyrie never really wanted LeBron to come back (to Cleveland) in the first place. He didn’t think it was necessary. LeBron said something to Kyrie on the court following a game when he was with Miami something to the effect of, ‘Keep going, keep doing what you’re doing. You never know, I could be back here one day.’ And Kyrie basically said, ‘What’s he talking about, we don’t need him.’”

McMenamin: “Kyrie and his camp considered asking for a trade after the championship. They decided to keep it in house and not go forward with it, but it was something they discussed.”

They also said that LeBron only tried to keep Kyrie in Cleveland when he heard who the Cavs were getting in return from the Boston Celtics. He thought it was a bad deal.

Apparently, close associates and family from both sides had internal beef.

Elsewhere on the show, the three talked about how bad coach Ty Lue’s relationship was with Irving, why LBJ and Kevin Love fell out and what Dwyane Wade did to implode the locker room behind the scenes this past season.