Comparisons to the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant saga in 2007 miss the mark.
As Kyrie Irving’s fate continues to linger with training camp approaching ever faster, there is a sense that the Cleveland Cavaliers could just simply bring him back, despite his trade request.
Technically speaking, this is possible because Irving is under contract until July 2019. If he wants to get paid, he’ll show up and play. No matter his heart’s desire, the Cavaliers have him for two full seasons, if they want him.
Many have compared the situation to Kobe Bryant’s trade request in 2007. Kobe made his demands with three years remaining on his contract. The Lakers called his bluff, knowing Bryant had no real contractual leverage. (There were suggestions he simply wouldn’t report to training camp due to his unrest. He reported to training camp.) The Lakers eventually pulled off the huge trade for Pau Gasol at midseason, made the NBA Finals, and watched Kobe win his first and only NBA MVP award. He never became a free agent again.
This has been presented as a model for how the Cavaliers ought to deal with Kyrie. But there is one problem, of course.
Kobe demanded a trade because he felt the Lakers were not equipped as a team to compete at the highest levels. (They weren’t.) L.A. had a clear path to settling Kobe’s qualms: get better. They did. The Lakers identified a path to pleasing Kobe and defusing his trade demand, and executed it.
Kyrie has reportedly requested a trade not because the Cavaliers can’t win — three straight NBA Finals with a title in there says otherwise — but because Irving wants to be an alpha dog on his own franchise. Irving is reportedly requesting a trade because he has tired under LeBron James’ tutelage, or because the Cavs are too dysfunctional for his tastes. The reasons his camp have floated vary depending on the weather.
None of them is easily solved.
Trade demands like Kobe’s are simple to resolve. Either you get better soon enough to defuse the anger, or you don’t, in which you case you make a trade when there’s still runway left.
What does success look like if you keep Kyrie? The Cavaliers cannot trade LeBron, either technically (he has a trade veto) or theoretically (he’s LeBron f’n James). There are rumors James will leave of his own volition in 2018, and it’s plausible Cleveland could wait for that eventuality before dealing with Irving’s request. That makes for one awkward season and a very strange 2018 free agency recruiting period. Any iota of attention Cleveland dedicates to LeBron in that case is a slap in Kyrie’s face.
In some sort of utopia, LeBron could cede control of the offense completely to Irving, letting him put up the MVP numbers he apparently believes he can. James could become another of Kyrie’s jump shooters, a new Channing Frye or Kyle Korver. He could defer to the brash New Jersey kid to the point of discomfort, and likely to the Cavaliers’ discontent as the No. 1 seed in the East flutters ever further away. The Cavaliers could give Kyrie exactly what he says he wants by subduing the Greatest of His Generation and Maybe All Time, a thriving living legend who could win MVP every year if the voters wouldn’t get bored.
They could. They shouldn’t. They won’t.
The Cavaliers have now seen the true Kyrie Irving. He prioritizes the glory of self over collective achievement. That’s peculiar to be certain, but it’s not indefensible. (Kyrie’s only indefensible crime is the Flat Earth nonsense. I wish he’d drop that gimmick off the edge of the planet.)
Given what the Warriors have done, the Cavaliers’ margin for error is infinitesimal. Internal strife is self-inflicted pain. The Warriors and others will do Cleveland enough harm that the Cavaliers can’t afford to be helping them out.
There’s no sense in wasting one of LeBron’s final seasons — hell, maybe his very last campaign as a Cavalier. Some of us remain convinced James is never leaving northeastern Ohio to play basketball elsewhere. But after all that has happened, who can truly be certain? There’s no time to deal the cards and see what hand presents itself. It’s time to recommit to LeBron by dealing Kyrie, lest you ensure that you lose them both.
Kyrie doesn’t have hard leverage, but the circumstances have aligned to force the Cavaliers to give him what he wants. It’s only a matter of time now.