LeBron Said Kyrie’s Comments On Finally Having A Clutch Teammate In KD ‘Kinda Hurt’

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s partnership in Cleveland was, at times, tense, as the young guard wasn’t always quick to embrace James’ dominant leadership style, but the two did combine to lift the Cavaliers to their first championship in 2016 in their historic comeback from 3-1 down against the 73-win Golden State Warriors.

A year later, Irving would issue a trade request that landed him in Boston as he seemed determined to break off on his own to take on the starring role he believed he was destined for, while James spent one more year in Cleveland before heading to Los Angeles. This year, James’ Lakers are once again the favorite in the West and to repeat as champs, while Irving’s Nets are among the favorites in the East now that he and new star teammate Kevin Durant are both healthy.

There’s certainly going to be a feeling out process for Durant and Irving, but the two friends are very excited to play together. Earlier this offseason, Irving joined Durant on his The ETCs podcast and made a comment that raised some eyebrows, in which he indicated that Durant will be the first teammate he fully trusts to defer to and take some of the same shots in clutch situations.

“I felt like I was the best option on every team I’ve played for down the stretch,” Irving said. “This is the first time in my career where I can look down and be like, that motherf*cker can make that shot too and he’ll probably do it a lot easier. I feel like, yo, it’s not so much deferring, because in past situations if I didn’t take the last shot I felt guilty. I was like I want this game-winning shot but you want to trust your teammates — not to say I didn’t have the trust in my teammates — but I felt like I was the best option. And now, 10 seconds down, OK, K, get us a f*ckin bucket, I don’t care. I’m going to crash the offensive glass.”

Naturally, everyone’s first reaction was to be rather surprised by the comment given that he played with LeBron who is among the best players to ever play, and it was a comment that even caused LeBron to be taken aback. James addressed it on the Road Trippin’ Podcast with Richard Jefferson and Allie Clifton, noting that he waited until he could get the full transcript to make sure it hadn’t been taken out of context, but once he saw that was indeed how it came off he was “kinda hurt” by Irving’s comments.

The relationship between James and Irving has always been a fascinating one, as Kyrie never seemed keen to taking on the role of young player being brought along under LeBron’s wing, balking at the idea that he was a little brother or something of the sort. Irving’s relationship with Durant is clearly different and built out of longtime friendship, rather than a sudden pairing as happened with he and LeBron in Cleveland. It’s clear that LeBron wanted to have something different with Irving, as noted by his saying the two never aligned, and this is the latest instance of him being a bit hurt by that not being the case. As he said, it isn’t something that made him mad or upset, but clearly made him feel some type of way and a little disappointed that Kyrie doesn’t see him in that same light.