LeBron James once hilariously told a fan that Kyrie Irving was at his mother’s house after the fan asked him where he was.
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LeBron James knew at the end of the 2014 NBA season that his time with the Miami Heat had run its course. Neither Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh were in their primes any longer with the former suffering from foot and knee injuries for a couple years now. So, James decided it was time to go back home to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With a new ‘Big 3’ in Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and himself, LeBron James was ready to make the NBA Finals for a 5th straight year. Of course, in classic LeBron fashion, he made the Finals every year that he was in ‘The Land’ from 2014-2018, even delivering on his promise of bringing a chip to Cleveland 13 years after getting drafted by them.
At the center of it all was the pairing of James and Irving. The two were the most potent offensive pairing in the NBA from 2014-17 with only Westbrook and KD giving them a run for their money for that title.
Of course, as history would play out, Kyrie Irving wouldn’t stick around Cleveland for all too long as he’d be traded away 6 years after getting drafted by them no. 1 overall.
LeBron James responds to a fan asking where Kyrie Irving is.
Kyrie Irving was tired of being in James’s shadow on the Cavs and wanted to be ‘The Guy’ on another team. Him asking out of Cleveland in the summer of 2017 led to him finding himself on a young, up and coming Celtics squad.
Meanwhile, LeBron James was still on the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that had quite the revamp once Kyrie was traded due to the haul they received from Boston. The Cavs weren’t all too great that season despite making the Finals but the frustration from being mediocre seemed to have boiled over for James in this moment below.
Irving missed quite a bit of that season and eventually the Playoffs due to him undergoing a knee surgery. The Celts did go on to face LeBron James and his Cavs in that season’s Eastern Conference Finals, a series that went to 7 games.
