Report: Cavaliers Lied To LeBron About Trading Kyrie

LeBron James will return to Northeast Ohio to square off against the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time since electing to leave the franchise as a free agent in order to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers this past summer and that has brought up plenty of topics from his final year with the franchise.

In a new report from Joe Vardon of The Athletic, multiple sources confirmed that LeBron not only implored Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman to not trade Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics but he was reassured that that sort of deal would not happen just minutes before it was agreed upon.

“When then-coach Tyronn Lue, also in California at the time, found out what was about to happen, he drove out to see James and put him on the phone with Cavs general manager Koby Altman.

James was adamant on the call — do not trade Irving, especially to the Celtics. By the end of the call, according to four separate accounts of people present for the conversation, Altman told James the trade would not occur.

Minutes later, on Aug. 22, 2017, word broke that the Cavs agreed in principle to send Irving to Boston for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and Brooklyn’s 2018 first-round pick.

James’ close friend, Randy Mims, and bodyguard Rob Brown came to him with their phones to show him the news. James, who was still signing jerseys, dropped the pen and slumped in his chair.”

With his return to Cleveland now just days away, LeBron made it clear that the decision to trade Irving to the Celtics of all teams ultimately led to the end of the run which their Cavaliers roster had gone on which led to the franchise claiming its first Larry O’Brien Trophy.

While the odds were probably high that James would have left Cleveland the following summer, either way, the decision to not listen to his advice and ship Irving off to one of their chief rivals in the Eastern Conference surely did not help their cause in the end.