Former Cleveland Cavaliers and current Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue was emphatic in his response to a recent question from Shannon Sharpe on his “Club Shay Shay” podcast Thursday, Aug. 28.
Would the Cavs have won a second championship had guard Kyrie Irving not demanded and received a trade?
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“Yes,” Lue replied. “Yes. I also think if K.D. (Kevin Durant) doesn’t go to Golden State, I think we win and I think Kyrie stays. You can’t leave after that.”
Sharpe asked Lue if there was anything the coach could’ve done to keep Irving in Cleveland, but Lue said the guard had decided definitively that he wanted to be traded.
Lue said he learned of Irving’s eventual trade to the Boston Celtics while sitting next to LeBron James as the current Los Angeles Laker sat autographing memorabilia for his Akron-based foundation.
“Bron dropped the marker, drops … and just lays back in his chair for about 10 minutes, doesn’t say a word. Like just pissed off,” Lue said. “Bron was crushed. And I saw, when that happened, I thought things, I thought Bron would do something different sooner than later and that’s what he did.”
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Yes, yes, he did.
James stayed with the Cavs until he was able to exercise his player option on his contract and decided to exit Cleveland for the second time in his career. Though he left in a less an acidic situation than his first unceremonious departure to Miami, it left a lingering feeling of “what could have been.”
Lue eventually shared that he believed that had Irving remained in Cleveland, James would have, also.
Yes, this is the most Cleveland, and by extension, the most Northeast Ohio thing ever in local sports.
George M. Thomas covers a myriad of things including sports and pop culture, but mostly sports, he thinks, for the Beacon Journal.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ex-Cavs coach Ty Lue says Kyrie Irving Boston trade ‘crushed’ LeBron