The second LeBron James era in Cleveland is now over. And with "The King" officially having left the Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers, it's time for the stories to start coming out. Pretty much every time a player leaves town, via trade or free agency, there will be reports about things that happened behind the scenes that reporters simply couldn't share at the time.
When it comes to LeBron James, that phenomenon is shifted into hyperdrive, because not only are there plenty of LeBron stories, but people are super interested in them. A very fascinating story came on Thursday during a Cavaliers roundtable podcast with three longtime beat reporters. Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, Dave McMenamin of ESPN and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com joined 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland to discuss many aspects of LeBron's second stint with the Cavs.
At one point, the relationship between Kyrie Irving and LeBron came up, and Lloyd noted that Irving never wanted LeBron to come back. Additionally, McMenamin noted that Irving and his camp almost asked for a trade after they won the title in 2016.
Full comments from the audio clip:
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."
Of course, as we know, Irving eventually forced his way out after the 2016-17 season, eventually landing with the Celtics. At the time, we learned that part of the reason was his deteriorating relationship with LeBron. However, it's interesting to note from this discussion that there may have really never been a good relationship in the first place.
This just goes to show that as much as we think we know about these teams, there's far more that we'll never understand.