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Since we have last met at this fine establishment, news has broken that Kyrie Irving wants to be traded away from Cavaliers, preferably to somewhere he can be the real centerpiece and not LeBron's sidekick. I explain the whole situation right here.
What developed in Act II of this drama was quite interesting: It looks like LeBron might be the one framing all of this for us.
Stephen A. Smith reported Sunday that Kyrie's camp believes LeBron leaked the trade request (which had been a couple of weeks old when revealed). That means that the framing of why Kyrie wants out came from LeBron's camp. How interesting that a second narrative — that Kyrie wants to find better franchise stability — is beginning to crop out as Irving's camp presumably reacts.
On Monday, LeBron reportedly lobbied Derrick Rose to join the Cavaliers on a one-year flyer. The plugged-in Joe Vardon reported that Rose and Bron "spent the day together discussing how the team will return to the finals without Kyrie" and that "James is eager to see [Irving] off."
It would appear that LeBron is MAD. Good luck to you, Kyrie.
More Chronicles of Kyrie stuff: Zach Lowe's deep-dive on the options and pitfalls out there on the trade market. The ESPN crew's tick-tock of how Kyrie came to this place. Chris Herring's analysis of Kyrie's best role. What Kyrie's request says about LeBron. Kevin Love has the best no-comment on this ordeal. Kevin O'Connor looks at the chain reaction of impacts.