All is not peachy keen with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Not according to Stephen A. Smith of ESPN’s First Take (h/t Josh Hill of FanSided):
Dating back to last year, I’ve been told that Kyrie Irving ain’t too happy being in Cleveland,” Smith stated on First Take this morning. “The situation is not ideal for him. I don’t know the particulars, I haven’t spoken to him personally. It’s something that I’ve been hearing for months; that under ideal circumstances he would prefer to be someplace other than Cleveland.”
Irving-hates-Cleveland rumors existed long before LeBron James came to town, and it’s hardly shocking that they’re still surfacing now. He is 23 years old and has to take a backset to LeBron in the front end of his prime, and, well, Cleveland is Cleveland. It’s not a sexy place to live (so I’ve heard).
But if Kyrie Irving is truly unhappy, to the point he actually wants to leave, that would be weird. He clearly isn’t ready to lead his own title contender, and the Cavaliers, for all their disappointments, are still well-positioned for a return to the NBA Finals. Cleveland’s net rating plummets when LeBron steps off the floor, and that includes when Irving and Kevin Love share the floor without him, per NBA.com.
This, mind you, will all probably blow over in a few days, but the Cavaliers appear very high strung. LeBron’s Miami Heat teams had an air of calm and fun about them. The Cavaliers don’t have that, perhaps because LeBron is now the old head and isn’t surrounded by equals with rings, as he was with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.
Take the latest development with a metric ton of salt regardless. Things aren’t perfect in Cleveland to begin with, and issues are always exacerbated—or even manufactured—when there’s an opening for even a sliver of doubt and drama.
