I just think it’s hilarious that all you ever hear about LeBron is that he’s this amazing teammate & everyone wants to play with him. Now you’ve got this talented 25 year old who would rather play on a 35–40 win team than play another season with him. Yeah some of this reflects poorly on Kyrie; he has a very high opinion of himself considering he plays no defense, & he obviously takes winning a lot of games for granted.
But if this happened with literally any other player (besides LeBron), people would be pointing the finger at that player even more than Kyrie. Can you imagine if this was Kobe that Kyrie was trying to get away from? Simmons would write a 5,000 word column about how Kobe is a selfish player who no one can stand playing with.
The fact is, LeBron strolled back into town when it was convenient for him (when Miami was obviously done for), & took all the attention with him (not to mention, took over complete control of the team, both on & off the court). It seems that Kyrie didn’t really appreciate this very much, & has put up with it so far because they were winning games. But if they have no shot at beating Golden State (& especially if LeBron is leaving town next year anyway), Kyrie obviously figures he might as well “take his talents” elsewhere.
I still think Kyrie is kind of an idiot for taking this stance (& for other things he’s said, but let’s not get into that), but some of this has to reflect on LeBron as well. You can’t keep calling him this phenomenal teammate, when one of the best players he’s played with, demands a trade. It’s especially baffling when you consider that I’m sure LeBron was counting on being able to rely on Kyrie more & more in the next few years (if LeBron stayed in Cleveland). I would think they both would have benefited from that but oh well.
