Words by Roman White
A new report revealed that Kyrie Irving threatened to get knee surgery if the Cavaliers did not trade him during the offseason. According to Cleveland.com, Boston Celtics Point Guard and NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving according to sources needs minor knee surgery to follow up a previous surgery he had after the 2015 NBA Finals when Irving broke his kneecap in Game 1.
The surgery is reportedly not urgent, but Irving desperately wanting out of Cleveland used this threat to get surgery as leverage over Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert to force a trade despite have two years left on his contract. The surgery reportedly could’ve been done during the offseason and Kyrie would be back without missing a beat, but the young superstar took advantage of the organization where he won his first NBA championship.
The NBA community was surprised when reports first surfaced that the former Duke Blue Devil wanted out of a team that was almost guaranteed an NBA Finals spot. When pressed on ESPN’s First Take about what happened with the Cavaliers, Irving suggested that it had been something he’d been contemplating for a while but was not vocal about his disposition because he didn’t want to be a distraction to his teammates.
Following the end of the 2016-2017 season, The Cleveland Cavaliers traded their star Point Guard for another star Point Guard, Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas was still recovering from a back injury he suffered in the Eastern Conference Finals and missed the first part of the season only recently coming back into regular rotation. Along with the high scoring Point Guard, the Cavaliers acquired Jae Crowder from the Boston Celtics.
The Cavaliers have been underperforming as of late, mainly struggling defensively while the Celtics have looked elite in the Eastern Conference. As captain of the Eastern Conference NBA-All Star team, LeBron James drafted his former teammate Kyrie Irving, so we’ll we see the former championship duo play together one more time next month.
