Even though there is basically no chance for James and Irving to be together in Dallas, they are still making the Finals about them.
MIAMI — Let Kyrie Iriving handle it. Basketball teams can no longer be ruined. Together with his friend LeBron James, he is now attempting to devalue the NBA Finals this year as well.
The Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, who are now tied at 1-1 in the championship series, will play a pivotal Game 3 on Wednesday, as those two players may be aware. The NBA would undoubtedly prefer to change the fact that, despite being exciting, this Finals has not had the same level of viewership as the two conference finals that came before it.
That LeBron and Kyrie have once again managed to take up much of the conversation, draw attention to themselves once more, and basically try to make this moment more about them than the NBA must be very annoying.
One NBA source who has worked with LeBron claims, “This is what LeBron does.” He is unable to stop himself.
Kyrie is the same.
The Athletic reported on Monday that upcoming free agent Irving had contacted James to inquire about joining him in Dallas. This is the most recent instance.
This is absurd for a number of reasons, not the least of which being the timing—right in the middle of a series that deserves fans’ attention but isn’t yet doing so in the appropriate way.
First off, unless the Lakers had completely lost their minds and planned to send Luka Doncic west, the Dallas Mavericks have nothing to give the Lakers in exchange for an under-contract LeBron James.
Again, absurd material.
The only other way for this to happen would be if the Lakers bought out LeBron James and allowed him to freely, and without receiving anything in return, head to Dallas. However, there are no players or draught picks that Los Angeles would even remotely consider, and as a result, there is no path for the kind of sign-and-trade you’d need to likely make the numbers work under the new CBA.
Once more: This is absurd material.
However, Irving or James (or both) made sure that this ostensibly private chat reached a news reporter whose every word becomes the story.
It’s important to note that James has been open about his desire to team up with Irving once more, so even if Kyrie leaked this information, it was almost definitely a LeBron-approved scheme.
This is about leverage, or the false notion that one or both of these stars can capture it. Additionally, Irving is sending the Lakers the following message: Pay me if you want me, and don’t anticipate any discounts, according to individuals knowledgeable with the NBA league position.
One source claimed, “LeBron’s not going to Dallas.” “That’s not even logical. This has to do with Kyrie telling Rob (Pelinka, the general manager of the Lakers) that he won’t accept a discount. And regarding LeBron’s efforts to gain some influence.
Here, ironies are piled on top of one another.
The first time this happened, Irving left Cleveland quickly after James and the Cavaliers won the championship years ago. After that exit, which many people would consider a betrayal, LeBron was the target of passive-aggressive and overtly antagonistic remarks.
After that, Irving never achieved anything even close to that degree of success. Once he left, the Celtics were and are better off without him. The Brooklyn Nets placed a lot of money on him, which resulted in tragedy when James Harden forced his way out of Brooklyn one year later and the whole thing collapsed.
It speaks to the unreliability he has always brought along with his basketball prowess that Kevin Durant is in Phoenix, Harden is getting ready to decide whether to stay in Philadelphia or move back to Houston, and Irving is in Dallas but obviously willing to dash their expectations as well.
Irony can also be seen coming from LeBron’s side. King James may be considered basketball royalty (I personally think he is the game’s GOAT), but throughout his career, he has been almost as horrible of a shadow general manager as he has been of a magnificent, transcendent player.
That was clearly demonstrated by the recent trading deadline. Pelinka was eventually given the freedom to conduct business without the King’s badly chosen regulations after James’ most recent scheme, the disastrous Russell Westbrook experiment, crashed and burned.
What an interesting idea: a GM becoming a GM.
A late-season Lakers renaissance was launched by Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Malik Beasley, forging a not-so-sexy but absolutely successful haul. Between the trade deadline on February 9 and the conclusion of the regular season, they held the best record in the Western Conference and the fourth-best record in the NBA overall.
Later, they too advanced to the Western Conference Finals.
However, here we are in June, with the Finals in full swing, and James and Irving have leaked a secret agreement between them in an effort to create a reunion that, like the majority of LeBron’s plans and every single one of Kyrie’s, will end in utter and absolute failure.
And to make matters worse—to add insult to the injury that will undoubtedly befall whatever team signs Kyrie next year—these two stars are weaving their obvious, not-so-subtle, not-going-to-work leverage play in the middle of the NBA Finals, which ought to be the focus.
The unspoken rule in this situation is to avoid interfering with the game’s main event.
Because of this, Adam Silver stated to the media last week in Denver that he would postpone disclosing the “additional information” the NBA discovered and the ensuing punishment awaiting Ja Morant until after the Finals. A lot of NBA news will have to wait because of this.
But LeBron and Kyrie have always done things this way. They do, at least, share that. The desire—or even lack of awareness—to personalise times that ought to be about others.
Since this sideshow may have been postponed. According to numerous NBA insiders and common reason, the idea that LeBron will play for the Mavericks next season is as absurd as the claim that he seriously pondered retiring when the Lakers were swept by the Denver Nuggets a few weeks ago.
Again, however, there we were talking about a failing Lakers team and James’ fictitious considerations of leaving when we could have been discussing Denver’s historic trip to the Finals and the brilliance of its own two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic.
Here, a tonne of transparent garbage serves as a diversion from the real issues at hand while unintentionally bringing to our attention two things that those who are spewing it would prefer we ignore: Kyrie Irving is not worth the trouble, and LeBron James is still horrendously bad at hoops moves off the court.