It is widely believed that Kyrie Irving’s request to be traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers spawned, in part, from a desire to have his own team – to not be considered LeBron James’ sidekick. Richard Jefferson, who was on those Cavs teams with Irving and James, appeared on ESPN’s “Get Up!” alongside Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith and debunked that theory, saying that Irving wanted out of Cleveland due to learning that the team tried to trade him.
Transcription c/o Cavaliers Nation:
“The reason why [Kyrie wanted out] was because there was a trade. That’s why he wanted to leave,” revealed Jefferson. “Once he found out that he was on the trading block and a trade almost went through, he was like, ‘I’m gone and I never want to come back here.'”
ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan reported the specifics of that proposed trade in January:
In mid-June, shortly before Griffin left, team and league sources confirm, the Cavs explored a three-way deal with Phoenix and Indiana that would have shipped Irving and Frye to the Suns and brought Eric Bledsoe and Paul George to Cleveland. The Suns resisted, unwilling to part with their No. 4 pick, which they planned to use to draft Josh Jackson.
The Cavs, of course, honored his request, trading the All-Star point guard to Boston.
This season for the Celtics, Irving has averaged 21.8 pointsper game to go along with career-high marks in the following categories: rebounds per game (4.7), assists per game (6.4), steals per game (1.6) and blocks per game (0.5).
