Recently there has been talk about Kyrie Irving wanting to
be traded because he can no longer stand Lebron. He was promised by the
Cleveland Cavaliers that he would be the leading face of the franchise back in
2014, so he signed a long term deal with the Cavs. Then Lebron decided to
return to Cleveland and rejoin the Cavs after leaving the franchise for the
Miami Heat back in 2010. The last three years Kyrie has been playing in the
shadow of Lebron James and he no longer wants to do this, on top of it all
there is uncertainty with Lebron James staying with the franchise after his
contract expires next year.
The last three years when Kyrie Irving was playing with
Lebron they made it to the NBA Finals three times and won one NBA championship.
During the first NBA Finals Kyrie only played one game due to being injured
during Game One. All that being said there is speculation that Kyrie Irving was
mocking Lebron's I'm coming home statement recently after he came back. When
Lebron decided to return to Cleveland he made a statement about coming home.
After this Kyrie felt he was no longer the face of the franchise and Lebron
James is now the face of the franchise. However if Lebron James had not return
to Cleveland the team would have not likely made the NBA Finals if even the
Playoffs. Kyrie would not have won an NBA Champion and have a championship ring
right now.
Some people are comparing this to the feud that of Shaquille
O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. We see back in the day when Shaq and Kobe had won three
NBA Champions together while they were playing for Los Angeles Lakers and then
there was a feud between the two. After that Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat
and he won an NBA Championship with Dwyane Wade. When Shaq was traded to the
Miami Heat the Lakers were in a struggle for a couple of years. Then the Lakers
were back on top with Kobe winning two championships with Pau Gasol for both
championships and Ron Artest (now Metta World Peace) for one of two.
No matter how the thing is sliced none of the two would have
likely won as many championships as they did without the other. Of course the
exception will be the other person did something so unreasonable and totally
out of line that would result in a reasonable person to have hatred towards
someone. From the news reports I do not see this to be the case with Kyrie and
Lebron. What I see is one of them wants to be a face of a franchise and have a
more leading role for a team. That was sacrificed to an extent and it resulted
in being an NBA Champion. Kyrie is still considered one of the team's captains,
with him, Lebron and Kevin Love they are considered the team's big three. He is
still recognized as a star player and he still has a big role in the team.
Winning NBA Championships is not a luxury that every player has, even star
players and hall of famers such as Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady,
Steve Nash, Charles Barkley, Chris Webber and Karl Malone to name a few, had
never won an NBA champion in their playing career.
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