Kyrie Irving has always been that player who marches to the beat of a different drummer and pretty much plays by his own rules. In short, he is not limited by what anybody else thinks. For years, NBA fans have wondered why he requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Irving is finally speaking.
On an episode of “I Am Athlete” which was released on May 16, Irving went in depth about what was going on at the time he requested the trade and his relationship with LeBron James.
“We have to protect one another because it will seep into family life where people will really think that we don’t like each other based on us not being able to play together anymore,” Irving said. “‘So you asked for a trade so you must hate that dude.’ That’s not true. So I had to defend myself, he had to defend himself, and it’s like, I’m trying to put that to bed so I can continue to build my own legacy.”
Kyrie Irving responds to fans asking why did he ask for a trade from the Cavs while playing with Lebron James pic.twitter.com/wGHdqf7zRx
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Irving says that he went to the Cavaliers organization and asked what their future plans were, and decided that it wasn’t for him. With that being said, he requested a trade, but was not able to talk to James before the media leaked his request.
“I’m continuously reminded over and over again, ‘Yo, you left [LeBron]. How could you do that,'” Irving said. “You got his fanbase, you got my fanbase, and you got team fanbases going at it, ‘Why couldn’t this work?’ And I say this. I asked for a trade because I was looking for something different.”
During that time, many fans and media believed that Irving requested a trade because he wanted to get away from playing in James’ shadow, which created an entire storyline of both players not liking each other.
