Cavs Kicks by Crown Royal: January 24-30
January 31, 2014All-Pro Josh Gordon: ‘You cannot replace Norv Turner’
January 31, 2014“I needed this. It was more or less a wake-up call. I got away with so much my first two years. It wasn’t a breeze, but everything came easy. This is the first year where every single night it’s going to be a challenge. That’s one of the things I’m getting used to and I’ve accepted.”
“I just feel like what people fail to realize is I don’t have all the answers all the time. I’m still the third-youngest on this team. I’m a 21-year-old kid trying to figure this whole thing out. It’s a daily job and that’s probably why it’s been one of the toughest years for me. I’m learning every single day.”
— Two-time All-Star Kyrie Irving, as told to the Akron Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd on Friday night, following a week of individual drama and thorough Cleveland Cavaliers losses.
The tumultuous week practically began with last Sunday’s column from Lloyd, placing additional blame on Irving’s defense and leadership for the team’s season-long struggles. The Cavs later blew an 18-point halftime lead on Sunday night against Phoenix.
On Tuesday, the Cavs were blown out at home by New Orleans. On Thursday afternoon, ESPN’s Chad Ford dropped a quick blurb in his weekly chat that Irving was privately telling folks he wants out of Cleveland. The Cavs then lost by 31 to the Knicks on TNT later that night. Irving spoke with reporters after the game, saying “I’m happy to be in Cleveland,” but preceded that line with the fact he’s still on his rookie contract.
Prompting this latest article and as a response to Sunday’s column, Lloyd shared that Irving and him sat down after practice today. Lloyd remarked on Twitter that the conversation was good, with some comments on the record and off.
The 21-year-old point guard from Duke added to Lloyd: “this is the first year I was really challenged the entire year” and “it was a lot harder than I expected.” Head coach Mike Brown also shared some comments, saying he thinks Irving is improving despite the gigantic pressure.
[Related: Know your CBA: Kyrie Irving unlikely to leave Cleveland soon]
Photo: AP Photo/Tony Dejak
11 Comments
So it was ESPN blowing things out of proportion? What a shock.
I agree! There is NO precedent for that kind of behavior. What POSSIBLE reason could the national media have to make a player seem unhappy in a small market? Shocked, I say, SHOCKED!
And of course that’s all we talked about all week. Shame on us.
We should have all expected the “Irving wants out” story sooner rather then later based on the way this team has been playing. Personally I want to believe what Kyrie Irving says because he seems like a straight forward good kid. We just have to remember he, like he says, is just a kid.
All that aside the Cavaliers have to figure this mess out. I’m still not sold on Mike Brown and never think I will. He’s not a head coach he’s a defensive assistant. Unless Brown has an epiphanny or a change is made I don’t see this thing suddenly turning around.
We also had to talk about the Browns. At this point it’s a coin toss for me on which subject I’d rather not think about: the Cleveland Browns or the Cleveland Cavaliers.
That’s funny, I was just wondering if it was Mike Lombardi who leaked the “Kyrie is unhappy in Cleveland” rumors just to take some of the heat off the Browns’ coordinator search.
We should have all expected the “Irving wants out” stories I mean it’s the LeBron James situation all over again. I see somebody already felt the need to pen Kyrie a letter. Seriously, I mean don’t people learn anything anymore?
Nope, learning from your mistakes is hard because you have to a) learn, which is hard, and b) admit you made a mistake, which is often times even harder.
Thanks to the 24 hour news cycle and our predilection for outrage, this should be a regular occurrence for us now. And every time after it is shown to be another made up story, we will all collectively say “I knew the media was trolling us again, but still commented a bunch anyways”.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
True I buy into it to just not as bad as I once did. I think the fact that while I love sports and could discuss it all day, it’s not the most important thing to me.
#EatSleepConquerRepeat
It probably was good old Mike!
This will go down as the historically worst interview in the history of the Cleveland Cavaliers by a member of the Cleveland media.
*Akron media