While We’re Waiting… finding an identity…and the right uniforms
July 18, 2013Indians All-Star Break Review: The Position Players
July 18, 2013While we don’t necessarily believe this and believe it has no foundation, there have been some Internet rumblings this morning about the potential of Kyrie Irving leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers. Thus, we wanted to share with you what has been happening. This is not our endorsement of said rumor and we hope to not lend any additional credence with this headline.
Brandon Tierney of CBS Sports Radio tweeted earlier this morning: “I’ve heard from someone in the know… Kyrie Irving not long for Cleveland.” He later followed up by saying: “I 100% stand by my position regarding Kyrie Irving and the Cavs. If you follow me, you know I am not reckless when it comes to such items…”
Tierney hosts a radio show during weekday mornings with Dana Jacobson and Tiki Barber.
Irving, 21, will enter his third year in the NBA this coming fall. He was an All-Star this past season, averaging 22.5 points, 5.9 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game in his 59 contests.
Per the website HoopsHype, Irving is under contractual obligation with the team for 2013-14, then the Cavs own another team option for 2014-15. After that, there is a qualifying offer on the table for 2015-16, meaning he’d be a restricted free agent that summer regardless — and likely would agree to a max long-term deal of some kind. Cleveland could match any offer on the table that summer of 2015 with Irving holding no decision over his future.
It’s highly unprecedented for any actually productive rookie first-rounder to leave a team after his rookie deal, because of the rights the NBA gives to teams owning such players. At the absolute earliest, it appears Irving couldn’t leave until summer 2016, which would be assuming he agrees just to the qualifying offer for that previous season and then becomes an unrestricted free agent. Such an occurrence is also a extreme rarity for a All-Star No. 1 overall pick.
File this rumor under the category of “speculation only.” There appears to be no other confirmation of this rumbling and such an occurrence is at least three years away from even becoming remotely possible. Even if such a rumor was true, it wouldn’t actually matter for a very long time.
The Cavs obviously have attempted to improve their team drastically this offseason, with the draft picks of Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev, plus the free agent signings of Earl Clark, Jarrett Jack and Andrew Bynum. They won only 24 games last season but expect to compete for the playoffs in 2013-14 under new head coach Mike Brown.
Update: Kyrie Irving just tweeted the following: “I wish I knew ‘someone in the know’ for all my facts, maybe I would go into journalism as well!!”
FOX 8’s John Telich also has the following:
http://twitter.com/WFNYKirk/status/357891084086550528
So yes, this rumor is just that: a rumor. Ignore as you wish.
[Related: The Diff: Fun Cleveland Cavs facts fans keep forgetting]
116 Comments
This is the worse thing about twitter….reporters dropping nonsense so they can see their names in print. Grandstanding….journalism. You can now say anyone “in the know” and hide behind that when it is actually you speculating it like a coward. Bush league reporting.
Yeah, before twitter came around, reporters never used anonymous sources to spread rumors to the public.
If Kyrie were to leave I would expect Cleveland to have learnt from their LeBron mistake and trade him to get something in return. Kyrie is a great player and therefore a great trade chip
Yes, actually with Andrew Bynum, Dion Waiters and Jarrett Jack, Earl Clark and the Bennett kid much less Varejo and Zeller you really dont need Kyrie Irving…I am not saying he is not going to be a superstar but not on that team now that they have Bynum and Mike Brown as coach. Kyrie will have to play defense…Yes, I would shop him. Absolutely. That team will still be good enough for LeBron to go back to…or another star to play for.
Ron, with all due respect… whuck??? You want to give up the most promising young player in the league because LBJ *might* come back? I am going to veto this request as soon as I find a way to get executive power.
It’s significant that Tierney has put himself on the line like this
Gripping definitely! Ill make sure to check back in three years when his current contract is up.
because, ya know, Grant and his FO are notorious blabbermouths of their intent. See: Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters, Anthony Bennett …
Your crazy even if lebron comes back still need a point guard and ehy the hell would you downgrade
Anyone remember that guy who runs SherdianHoops proclaiming that the Cavs are “%100” taking Alex Len #1?
These guys all have interesting sources, to say the least.
I am totally sympathetic to this POV but now reluctantly admit that websites value speed and casting wide nets more than reliability. If there’s such a thing as “sports journalism” then websites have different standards. Those operating this site can’t lose readers to another site that will pick up an explosive rumor. Jacob saw the reliability problem and tried to hedge as best he could. It’s important that sites repeating such things not carelessly pile additional speculation upon anonymous rumors that appear to make no sense. Jacob took pains not to do that (good job, young fella).
A lot of Steve on Steve crime today.
Thanks Harv. This really was a team effort. We were discussing the rumor in the WFNY email thread and it was not a unanimous decision at first to even post this to the site. It was difficult. We were going back-and-forth with what language to use and how to not disturb our readership. We worked hard to make it clear and informative, not absent-minded and pageviews-mongering.
Tierney is saying that Kyrie will leave the Cavs as soon as he can. What exactly do you want explained about this?
And I do hope that WFNY won’t return to the “Stephen A. Smith says LeBron coming to NY” stuff, when it appeared every attention-seeking rant which included the player’s name was linked. Like the recent link to Michael Irvin shouting inanities about Joe Thomas for strictly show biz purposes, that looks like the sort of fishing for hits that’s really beneath a quality site.
See above. Tierney is saying that Kyrie will leave the Cavs as soon as he can. There’s nothing at all about such a report to suggest it has “no foundation.”
Appreciate the feedback, thanks. Always feel free to email us with any concerns. We’re always open to anyone’s thoughts.
we will not be pushed into your email spam folder. This here is a public protest! 🙂
Look, the odds are that Kyrie leaves at some point. Pierce just left the Celtics, so it happens to everyone.
But, to suggest 3 years before it is even possible (as a choice) without mentioning the fact it couldn’t be for 3 seasons is just being a blowhard, which is what he was doing. Hey, it worked. It’s gotten a bunch of comments on this thread and I am sure a bunch throughout the internet. But, it’s nothing more than blowhard journalism.
Btw, Anthony Bennett is not long for Cleveland. You heard it here FIRST!!!!
did you bring torches? I brought the ‘mellows, grahams, and nestle’s but I don’t have anything to heat ’em up.
are you saying that we didn’t draft Alex Len?
This is so insane. The guy didn’t even publish a report, it’s just a single quote out of context. If Tierney heard from a legitimate source that Kyrie wants to get out of Cleveland as soon as he can, there’s nothing inherently “blowhardy” about saying so without discussing his contract terms.
Steve is right. A journalist reports something y’all don’t want to hear, and look at how you respond.
Steve on Steve!
Good grief. It’s extra Lord of the Flies in here today. I never said that “an anonymous source shouldn’t be questioned.” I only asked why Jacob wrote that he “believe[s] [this rumor] has no foundation” when a CBS journalist is telling him that his foundation is based on words from someone in the know. That is quite objectively “some foundation,” however weak the foundation might be, so to state that the report “has no foundation” is a statement of fact (not an opinion) that’s apparently simply incorrect, unless Jacob knows something that he’s not sharing. The fact that Tierney is staking his reputation on this report is significant. The fact that Kyrie has 3 more years on his contract is not. As noted above, Tierney is only saying that Kyrie is going to leave the Cavs as soon as he can. There is nothing so inherently contradictory about such a report to say it has “no foundation.”
I’m sorry that you feel like you’re being talked down to,
“Vindictive Pat.” I’m not sure exactly why you feel that way, but if the shoe fits? Anyway, I’ll work on being more empathetic to anonymous internet commenters who inject pissy nonsense into perfectly reasonable conversations. It’s a constant struggle for me, I’ll admit. In the meantime, good luck with your own struggle against journalists who report things that you don’t like to hear.
are tweets not considered reports now?
it has nothing to do with what I want or don’t want to hear. as noted above, I’m at peace with whatever Kyrie does after his 2nd contract with the Cavs and I’ll enjoy the 6-7years we have him (like we did w/ LeBron).
what I don’t like is having a bunch of media constantly speculating about such potential events years and years in advance without noting said events are years away. it IS blowhardy in that it purposefully tries to make the event seem imminent when it is not.
note: went to Tierney’s page and it does look like that he was pestered with such notes and he relented that Kyrie couldn’t leave because of the contract situation.
“I’ll work on being more empathetic to anonymous internet commenters who inject pissy nonsense into perfectly reasonable conversations.”
it should be easy to be empathetic to yourself, I suppose.
There’s no evidence that he’s ignorant of the rules. He’s just reporting what he’s heard.
Here’s the test. If Tierney said that he heard that Irving loves Cleveland and would like to sign an extension, would we be all in a huff to point out that he technically can’t do that until next summer, or would we act we just received manna from the sky?
If the guy has the information it is his job to report it. You really shouldn’t be so upset about a journalist doing his job.
Dang. Burn. I think I’m done here today. Thanks, everybody. It’s been super fun as always.
no, that’s just the reactionary POV. just like those who heard the rumors that LeBron did love his home in Ohio and may very well stay (back in 2010) were reactionary in the opposite way at the time.
Tierney purposefully didn’t include the details because he knew it would bring a firestorm and that is what he wanted. His boss is happy right now.
I’m not upset. Just noting that it’s also his job to give the full picture and (in his particular position) to give his opinion on how things will play out based on those details.
Kyrie’s contract terms are not a secret.
well, that whole 2nd paragraph is what you described in that sentence, no?
There’s a good life rule that goes: “You can be rude, or you can be stupid, but you can’t be both.”
Tierney didn’t include details that wouldn’t have changed the story. The story is Irving wanting out. That’s a big story regardless of what Irving’s contract looks like. We can either be smart enough to incorporate that into the facts we already know, or we can require Tierney to classify any and all details that might be considered pertinent.
Love it… taking more shots at me while claiming you don’t know why I feel like I’m being talked down to… after all I’m just the anonymous internet commenter and you are the revered Cleveland Frowns, champion of all things internet. Most people who visit this site know who I am, and that’s good enough for me.
You want to know why we’re “pissy” around here? There was absolutely no need for your first comment today… you just came in to pick apart another writer. You say there clearly is a foundation who is an anonymous source. That’s fine. Yet also, it would be perfectly reasonable for Jacob to assert that this source doesn’t really exist due to the questionable nature of the subject (and now tweets after the fact from Telich). Is he right? Who knows, but there’s certainly enough room to doubt that a foundation exists. No one’s breaking news here, it’s commentary, Frowns… it’s totally fine to doubt such a thing and back it up with your reasoning, which I feel happened here.
That sounds like a pretty stupid rule to me 🙂
I go nowhere – nowhere – w/o my torch. Nickname is liberty.
Yeah – I no longer read/listen/watch ESPN with the exception of a very few radio programs. So WFNY was the first place I heard about this.
Once s’more a happy ending.
Hey y’all — Responding from the WFNY perspective again. Hoping as usual that we can remain civil in these discussions.
In today’s WFNY email thread, the staff was discussing this rumor passionately. It was not at all a unanimous decision to post this headline. We wanted to be extremely careful with this so as not to disturb readers, give credence to one single rumor or act as if we also supported the value of this speculation.
There are lots of rumors out there on the Internet. This was just one, with no additional confirmation out there and from a source that doesn’t often report on Cleveland sports. It’s as if a nationally syndicated Fox Sports Radio host randomly tweeted about Kipnis wanting to leave. Why would we suddenly believe them? The circumstances seem very peculiar.
If this was Wojnarowski or Windhorst or a local reporter or someone else who regularly reports on the Cavs and breaking NBA news, this would be different.
We also wanted to make the post very specific in how it’s not even possible for Irving to leave until summer 2016. So while the claim came from a seemingly random source, it also wasn’t very realistic.
We wanted to be extremely explicit with our language in this post to distance ourselves from adding to this rumor. We just wanted to report what was being said on the Internet.
and, I think you did a fair job with it (providing the background information necessary for the readers to form an informed decision on the rumor).
really, the only debates going on in here are how much information is a journalist’s responsibility.
some of us believe a journalist should provide the full picture of information and then apply their analysis for what they believe will happen.
some believe that it’s the reader’s responsibility to have that information and the journalist is merely responsible for reporting what he hears from his sources.
it’s really an interesting topic that transcends this specific rumor.
then it should be easy for Tierney to look them up before posting.
look, I expect the writers on these boards to know Kyrie’s contract details. I do not expect the average NY Knick fan to know them. I do not even expect the average Cavs fan to know them.
even if he wants out:
wanting out when he can choose to do so
wanting out when he cannot choose to do so
you note that it DOESN’T change the story?
no player other than LeBron would be thinking about 3 years down the road. OKC went from terrible to almost champs in as much time. Checking out before you even check in is a dumb move athletically and professionally.
Kyrie is the type of kid who knows the best way to get to the next level is to be the best you can be at the level you’re at.
It doesn’t. The story isn’t “Kyrie is leaving at X date” its that Kyrie would rather be somewhere else. You’re putting words in the reporter’s mouth.
should I burn my jersey now?
use duct tape for now in case you need to tear it off in the future:
http://bdsports.sportsblognet.com/files/2012/09/randy-quaid-major-league.jpg
I think I’m more disturbed by the fact that John Telich apparently does not know the English language than I am by some anonymous sourcing. What the heck is with that Tweet?
As to the alleged report on Kyrie, you could easily substitute any player’s name and the story would be just as “accurate.” Contractually, Irving can’t go anywhere for a few more years and if/when he decides to stay in Cleveland no one will even remember what this Brandon Tierney said.
That’s all really great, but you never answered my question, which is a legitimate one that you should want to answer. Again, why did you write that you “believe [this rumor] has no foundation”? A CBS journalist is
telling you that his foundation is based on words from someone in the know. That is “some foundation,” and by denying that you are necessarily calling Tierney a liar and/or a hack. What information do you have to support that?
Not true. When Kyrie leaves I will definitely remember this Tierney report. You can count on that.