Former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue recently shared insights about the emotional impact the 2017 trade of Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics had on LeBron James. Lue, who is now coaching the Los Angeles Clippers, recounted these details during a conversation with Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinee Shannon Sharpe.
Lue described the moment James learned about the trade: “LeBron was doing an autograph signing with jerseys and stuff for his foundation. So I come sit next to Bron, we’re sitting there, hand him the phone, SportsCenter says Kyrie Irving’s just been traded to the Boston Celtics. Man, Bron dropped the marker, just lays back in his chair for about 10 minutes and doesn’t say a word. Just pissed off. Bron was crushed.” He also expressed his belief that James would have remained with the Cavaliers had Irving stayed.
James and Irving played together on Cleveland’s roster from 2015-16 through 2016-17, leading the team to three straight NBA Finals appearances and securing an NBA championship in 2016. After Irving’s departure in 2017, Cleveland returned to the Finals in 2018 but lost before James left for the Los Angeles Lakers, where he later won another title in 2020.
Irving later addressed his own decision during a Twitch stream earlier this month: “When you’re playing with someone like [James], or somebody you like to compare him to, it’s a different animal (…) It’s a different journey, you’re automatically expected to be at the top of the league. Every time you play with [James] it’s going to be a lot of media attention, a lot of narratives, spun narratives, politics, a lot of s that people don’t see in front of the camera. And for me I was just a young person trying to figure it out. It’s not that I disliked playing with [James] at any time, it was just literally my time to move on,” Irving said.
The departure marked a significant change for both players and altered potential outcomes for Cleveland’s roster at that time.
