Kyrie Irving reportedly has requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers, and one of the reported reasons why this happened is that he no longer wants to play with LeBron James.
NBA legend and Basketball Hall of Fame member Charles Barkley doesn’t agree with the superstar point guard, and he made that abundantly clear in a recent interview on NBA TV.
“You want to be on a good team. You want to play with other great players. This notion where you want to be the man, I just think is so stupid,” Barkley said.
Barkley later added: “You wanna share the glory. You wanna win. Right now, there’s only two or three, maybe four legitimate teams in the NBA. If you’re not on one of those four or five teams, you’re really just wasting your time for like seven months. So I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to play with LeBron. Listen, I wanna play with LeBron now!”
Irving, despite essentially sealing a 2016 NBA Finals win over the Golden State Warriors with a late 3-point shot over Stephen Curry in Game 7, has been in James’ shadow since the four-time league MVP returned to Cleveland in 2014.
But Barkley is right, you have to play with other great players to win, and there’s still no better player in the league than James. Irving should try to work out any differences he might have with James before leaving the Cavs. The 25-year-old point guard hasn’t shown much to suggest he’s capable of being a No. 1 option on a legit championship contender, as the Cavs have struggled mightily when Irving plays without James.
Thumbnail photo via Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports Images
