An absolutely wild NBA preseason continues to offer up more drama as Kyrie Irving as seemingly informed Cleveland Cavaliers that he no longer wants to play for them.
The news has come out of the blue, and is a bitter blow for Cavs fans who were already worrying over the future of LeBron James and had watched the NBA champion Golden State Warriors manage to strengthen by adding Nick Young from the Lakers.
Brian Windhorst broke the story for ESPN, and it seems to have a lot of weight behind it:
Kyrie Irving requests a trade from Cavs, sources told ESPN. LeBron James was blindsided and is disappointed: https://t.co/54afvYge9V
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) July 21, 2017
Both the franchise and James were rocked when Irving asked the team to trade him last week. James was informed after Irving told the Cavaliers and was unaware of the guard's feelings, sources said.
Irving did talk about the meeting to several other teammates, a league source told ESPN's Dave McMenamin.
In Barcelona, there are many suggestions that Neymar wants to move to PSG because he is tired of playing in the shadow of Lionel Messi, and there's a strikingly similar situation developing in Cleveland as reports on NBA Radio claimed that the 2016 NBA Finals MVP was ready to be the main guy elsewhere.
LeBron James is believed to be upset by this decision, so it's unclear as to what that means for the best basketball player on the planet who is a free agent next year, and being linked with the Spurs and Lakers among others, in recent weeks.
So where is he off to? Per Chris Haynes of ESPN, Kyrie's favoured options are the Spurs, Knicks, Heat, and Timberwolves.
ESPN Sources: On Kyrie Irving front, Cavs were given four preferred landing spots: New York, Miami, San Antonio, Minnesota.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 21, 2017
This is going to be interesting, that's for sure. We're talking about one of the very best in the league making himself available and every GM in the league must be pondering how they could make it work.
We'll see in the next few days whether or not a serious contender emerges, but if you're a fan of one of those teams it's going to be hard not to get excited.
