LBS- In a recent appearance on “The BBall Breakdown Podcast,” ESPN’s Dave McMenamin was asked about the Phoenix Suns’ interest in trading for Irving. “I’m not sure,” said McMenamin, per Ryne Nelson of SLAM Online. “Phoenix, of course, hired James Jones this offseason. He’s been inside that locker room. He saw Kyrie in the playoffs this year — in between the first round when they beat Indiana and the second round when they played Toronto — go consecutive days without speaking to a teammate at practice. On that stage. “It’s one thing for people to go through your ups and downs during the regular season,” McMenamin continued. “But when you get to the playoffs, the main thing is the main thing, and we’re brothers, and we’re pulling together to get this thing done. Even at that level, there were things that made him sullen or reclusive from his teammates.” ------ Maybe I am more skeptical than most, but I have a hard time believing that Kyrie Irving gave his entire locker room the silent treatment - for days at a time - in between rounds of running train on the Eastern Conference. As a former player that made a living as LeBron's right hand man, James Jones would know better than I, but something tells me that this story has gotten slightly exaggerated in translation. That's not to say that there wasn't tension between strong-willed teammates, but if you want me to accept something as ridiculous as the starting point guard of playoff team going full mute then it better come from a source that doesn't have a vested interest in making Kyrie Irving look bad/less valuable. I'll tell you what though, if this tale isn't as tall as it appears, then this might be the first bit of good news that Cleveland Cavaliers fans have gotten this summer. As an introvert that thinks verbal communication is wildly overrated, it's good to have the NBA Finals runner-up to point to as proof positive of that. I know this story is being used as an aggressively passive way to widen the divide between Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, but my main takeaway from it is that they don't even have to remotely like each other to be successful. Consider this, the following GIF couldn't possibly do a better job of illustrating the phrase "IDGAF" and it took place about three months before the players involved in it led their team to the biggest comeback in Finals history over the winningest team in NBA history... If I am a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers' braindead front office, why would I worry about an unspoken beef that is fitting of a group of teenage girls who are all interested in the same boy when the people involved in that beef immediately proceeded to casually go 8-1 en route to the championship round? If Kyrie Irving was so unhappy after waxing the Indiana Pacers that he was too pissed off to talk then it looks like Kyrie Irving plays his best basketball when he's acting like a petty, petulant child . Again, I think this is being wildly overblown to make Cleveland's tumultuous situation look like even more of a shit show than it actually is, but if - on the off chance - it's true? It should only give the Cavaliers more incentive to hold on to their biggest asset instead of shipping him off for less than he's worth. I suppose it's preferable if people that are working together to accomplish a common goal address each other's presence vocally, but - considering it took the formation of the most dominant team in basketball history to spoil their chances of repeating - apparently it's not really all that necessary.
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