Iman Shumpert asked if he was surprised Kyrie wanted to leave LeBron in Cleveland: “Hell nah. Kyrie is a Kobe guy, Kyrie wanted to beat LeBron”
I mean it was obvious Kyrie wanted his own team and to be the first option, then realized he’s not made for that shit after Boston
Yep. Instantly went back to being second fiddle after Boston. Could’ve done mad work if he just let Tatum & Brown take the reins too.
The boys took 2018 Bron & the Cavs to 7 in the ECF without Kyrie.
Tatum and Brown have had the Celtics go to at least the eastern conference finals 6 times in the past 9 seasons. Only times they didn’t make it that far was the year Kyrie played with them and when Tatum got injured last year.
Edit: forgot 2021 loss to nets.
There was also that 21 year in between there where the funnily enough lost to Kyrie.
Yeah lost to Kyrie when Jaylen missed the playoffs. Then they played the Nets the next season and swept them.
You mean the nets without Harden, which is not the same team.
Nets beat celtics with no jaylen and then celtics beat nets with no harden
The 21 nets beat the Celtics with brown
21 Nets beat the Bucks if they were as healthy as they were against the Celtics.
They would have beat the Bucks if KD’s foot was an inch shorter.
They would have beat everyone.
Yeah, most likely.
not a healthy nuggets
Jaylen Brown didn’t play that series
I’m saying they win even with brown
Not in 6 ROFL
Yeah no JB though… we woulda lost that series anyway but it’s a fun asterisk to put on it and pretend
they wouldn’t have made it even if tatum never got hurt they were down 3 games to 1.
They were down 2 games to 1. When Tatum went out, they were down 9 points with 3 minutes left, which is attainable.
They also won the next game without Tatum. So it could’ve easily been 3-2 with Boston in the lead.
“Which is attainable” lol. It’s more likely than not they lose that game.
What you said doesn’t contradict what I said lol.
Do you think a 9 point deficit is unattainable with 3 minutes left?
Easily? No, you guys were being outplayed even with Tatum
And that 2021 loss was when Jaylen Brown had season ending surgery and missed the playoffs
Never forget
Undisputed had some good moments
They didn’t have Hayward either. Their two highest paid players and they still made the conference finals. The east was so bad lol.
feel like that’s revisionist. Neither Tatum or Brown were on Kyrie’s level when he was there. they continued to develop after he left.
and kyrie wasn’t really a 2nd option in brooklyn because the big 3 rarely played together. kyrie rarely played at all with Nets with 165 missed games in 4 seasons. but he was an efficient 27 points & 6 assists on low turnovers. poor defender but he could be the best offensive player on a winning team.
he was also putting up 27/5/5 after the luka trade & before he got injured last year.
Kyrie is constantly disrespected because he’s a fucking idiot and always injured when it counts. He is an absolute hooper though that is just a little soft when the games are personal. The Mavs matching up with Boston was a worst case scenario for him. Dude shrunk at the worst time to the surprise of no one.
I wonder what he will do with cooper Flagg next year
He’s done plenty to earn disrespect when he wasn’t injured. Refusing to get the vaccine was one of the most ridiculous/selfish/destructive decisions in modern sports. And the one time he was healthy for the playoffs with Boston he was constantly redirecting our defense so that he could try to guard Giannis for some unexplainable reason.
All Kyrie is is an efficient scorer tho. The actually legitimate first options are often better two way players and better scorers, playmakers or both.
Averages almost as many assists as Curry for his career.
Except curry is a way better shooter, defender, and generates way more uncounted assists through his gravity
more like curry has a slight edge in passing & gravity and they’re about the same on defense. there are few players that have benefited more from the system built around them than curry.
Curry is the system lmao. He’s also far from a poor defender in his prime which you yourself admitted Kyrie is.
if you say so
It’s just facts actually, but feel free to find stats proving otherwise. You won’t be able to.
It took Tatum like 6 months after Kyrie left for him to become a better player than Kyrie ever was.
they got the same amount of FMVPs
Kyrie isn’t Kyrie by letting kids take the reins like that. Kinda what Shump is saying
That’s a fascinating what if. What if Kyrie stays in Boston and defers to Tatum and Brown — as they got better? I don’t think it’s a realistic ask because of how young Tatum and Brown were and how much he’s accomplish by then. But it’s a great what if
It was so bad that he called LeBron during the season and apologised for being a hard headed youngster
Makes me think what the fuck we’re those young guys in Boston putting him through lol
Really?
That’s the word in the streets young fella
Dang that’s crazy. Not super young but I’m a new fan.
Welcome to the association 🫡
Years later, not that year. Lebron was actually eating dinner with Kevin Love when Kyrie was calling to say that.
Yeah Kyrie announced it in a press conference at the time (I think 2019?)
Tbf tho Boston is a different beast. Them and the Lakers and GSW currently. If Kyrie went to like ATL it would have been more akin to his time in CLE without LeBron.
His first season in Boston was honestly one of his best seasons though
and it wasn’t even close to enough. probably part of his realization
First season leading the team with a surrounding cast in their first and second year and they made it to the ECF. It looks pretty good (but obviously no team would’ve been close to enough to the warriors those years)
because he got injured. and Hayward literally got hurt in the 1st game of the season lol
Here for the oblivious fuck Boston
but he was. led them to 55 wins his their first season, their best record since Big 3 Celtics in 2009
and that was with Hayward getting injured in their 1st game of the season
Led that team to 55 wins lmao they won 53 without him the previous season and had a much better team the next year
brother cause they had Isaiah Thomas in a top 3 MVP year. then Ainge kicked IT to the curb and denied him his payday after re-injuriing himself due to bad advice from Celtics medical staff
Don’t know why you’re downvoted for facts. IT erasure got me smh
He wasn’t top 3 in MVP
Top 5 and averaged 29ppg (28.9) that year
Aaaah gotcha. I just recalled him being in the conversation
He wasn’t at all. From what I remember it was Harden, Westbrook, and Kawhi with some love for Lebrin in their. This was the year the league decided to punish Curry and KD for teaming up and they didn’t get any MVP love
Naah fam, I ain’t gonna say he was a “top candidate”, but MVP was getting thrown around for him
And they had an injured hayward.
he led them to 41 wins, he missed 22 games
Record went down with every year tho and they never succeeded as much as they should’ve in the playoffs. Kyrie has never actually carried a team as a first option. Amazing 1b player though.
What about the playoffs where he shot like shit and had a 49% TS?
Do we think THAT question the reporter asked him back then planted or at least reinforced something in him?
Knowing Kyrie, possibly.
Ego can be a mf
If i remember correctly, kyrie was very upfront about that fact and never shied away from it
I guess when your second opinion snaps his leg… And you’re left with young guys and role players
it’s gonna be cake to just win a ring with the whole defense focused on you… Tf
Have some context don’t just same dumm shit for upVotes
Wade goes down and what did LeBron do.. lose Kyrie goes down LeBron… Loses
Nobody can win a ring when his second option is out tf… You don’t know ball
You would’ve thought he would’ve already known it when he never led the Cavaliers to more than 33 wins without Lebron. And for the record, it took one year for Lebron to take them from the worst team in the NBA to above .500 when he came into the league.
boston also was a weird time for kyrie. ive never seen a fanbase still hate a former player for this long after leaving, weird
Kyrie is a Kyrie guy.
With a splash of the dude from ancient aliens
Giorgio is actually pretty solid on terrestrial matters
How’s his jumper?
Flat
Career very similar to Ryan on The Office
Best comment here
One of one.
Cleveland fans should be thankful that Bron came back, because they wouldn’t have won a thing with Kyrie. They wouldn’t even have made a ECF. It would’ve been a dark storyline for Cavs fans
Cavs fans appreciate him for the most part. Lakers fans need to learn their role and do the same. They’d be 16 years without a championship if not for him.
People really thought he was signing with the Lakers in 2018 to film movies and LeCoast his way to retirement.
LeBron instead delivered 7 straight all-NBA seasons from ages 34-40. This dedication and longevity is a huge reason why he became the GOAT while in a Lakers uniform.
The replies from Lakers fans prove how spoiled the Lakers fanbase is. A lot of teams would kill for just one ring, yet so many Laker fans think he should’ve done more, despite the fact that literally no teams have repeated from 2019 to now. Shit, I just want to see the Wizards get to the playoffs foreal
NBA better throw us a bone this lottery
Lakers fan got that built in we going to get great players in the end. It was going to be very dark days once LeBron retires/leaves with AD as the best player, but they got Luka.
Yea without LeBron they’d have to settle for one or more of PG, kawhi, Kyrie, KD, butler, or any of the other stars who requested a trade after that like harden, AD, etc.
Literally every Cavs fan knows this
“Team wouldn’t have won anything if one of the greatest players of all time didn’t choose to sign with them”
Well, duh
he would’ve been a better Kemba in Charlotte
I think they are lol
Yes. Shump taking the easy way out and Shannon not pressing it. Everyone knows the deal, especially with GSW loaded up. I guess it would be interesting to see that 2015 series again with Kyrie, Love, and a third player that wasn’t Bron but also a star, and all of them healthy. That 2015 warriors team was extremely beatable and got by cause of the Cavs injuries
Cleveland fans should be thankful for Kyrie cause he’s the reason Lebron even came back
Well yeah no shit, the roster outside of Kyrie was awful, even prime Giannis wasn’t carrying that roster to anything
Prime Giannis is a hydrogen bomb compared to Prime Kyrie the newborn baby
Doesn’t change the fact
LeBron’s greatest achievement may well be winning a title with Kyrie and AD.
And he’s never won again after leaving Cleveland
I’ll never forget his salty ass comment about never having someone else on his team that could hit the big shots at the end of games
Like bro…what the fuck did this man do to you except help you win your only ring to that point
I know the media was poking Kyrie his whole time about being behind Lebron in some way, but I just felt like Kyrie lost sight of the fact Bron really fucked with him
Kyrie don’t care about a ring, legacy, selflessness, none of that. If he did the Nets trio would have gone a lot differently.
That’s not what he said though. He said it was the first time he had someone on his team where he didn’t feel guilty not taking the shots down the stretch himself.
Wasn’t Bron the one that told T Lue that Kyrie should take the last shot in game 7? Born always supported Kyrie and always had his back. And it seemed like he was genuinely hurt when Kyrie didn’t want to play with him or when dissed him afterwards.
I honestly think he doesn’t deserve to have his jersey retired because of how he left the team and his off the court shit.
Love, yes. LeBron, of course. Kyrie, nah.
Thats a crazy thing to say about the guy who hit the game-winning shot for your one and only championship lol And we’re not even talking about a role player, we’re talking about a guy who averaged 20+ ppg in that series.
Yeah Kyrie’s lowk dumb, but him and the Cavs are inseparable in legacy, espeically when he hit what is possibly the most famous finals shots in the history of the league for them.
I think calling him dumb is letting him off very easy. I would call his beliefs harmful at best.
Your jersey isn’t retired because of specific plays or moments, but because the team wants to officially cement the association they have with the player.
You have to represent well on and off the court for the team and fans to want to have that association with you - and while Kyrie’s on the court representation has been great, his off the court representation has not.
I recognize I am probably in the minority of non reddit Cavs (and maybe even reddit Cavs fans), but I don’t particularly want Kyrie to be a representative of the city, despite being a significant part of 2016. LeBron and Love are enough to celebrate.
For what it’s worth, fully agreed.
If you don’t want his jersey retired because of his anti-semitism and/or anti-vax stance, yeah I feel you. I thought you were saying Kyrie wasn’t as big of a part as Love or Bron in 2016, but its all good
he hit what is possibly the most famous finals shots in the history of the league for them.
By win probability added, it is the most clutch shot in all of NBA playoff history.
I’m fine with anyone on that team getting their jersey retired honestly
He made the Finals with Luka and was almost certainly going to win a Championship in Brooklyn if they didnt get massacred by injuries.
The Cavs went to the NBA Finals the following season in 2018 after he left. LeBron James won the NBA Finals in 2020
if they didnt get massacred by injuries.
And his own anti-vax ass.
most guys don’t even have 1 ring period. Kyrie got to the Finals again after Cavs
The Cavs also got to the Finals again after Kyrie
somebody had to lol. East was such a terrible conference that year
like who else was gonna make it? Derozan? rookie Tatum? Oladipo?
Not the Kyrie-led Celtics, that’s for sure
because Kyrie was injured
is this an argument in kyrie’s favor?????
no its a point of how bad the East was lol
your eastern conference mvp that year played 43mpg, average 34/9/9 on 62Ts. That’s why his team made the finals. If he doesnt drop 8 40 pt games in those playoffs, one of those other ‘weak’ teams from the east wouldve destroyed them.
No he just doesn’t want to concede the point lol
[deleted]
who said Luka wasn’t?
As if most players that leave a team ever get a ring, psh cmon nephew
And Cleveland never won again after Kyrie left. Your point being?
He’s been apart of a lot of winning
If Kyrie stayed and was healthy in 2018 with THAT version of Bron, they might have been able to take down the KD Warriors after they went 7 games against Houston. Lebron likely doesn’t leave Cleveland, and they win at least one more in 2019-2021 I think. It’s a real bummer of a what-if
The bigger what-if was the hypothetical Paul George trade. The Cavs were reluctant to trade the Nets pick that later became Garland
I thought they picked Sexton with the Kyrie pick
You’re right I got my years mixed up
PG said the deal was basically done but pacers decided not to since they were in the same conference. I remember thinking we might get jimmy too
2018 Kyrie had injury issues that weren’t season/team/game specific. Carryover injuries that would’ve resulted in missed time regardless.
Huh? Kyrie was there in 2017 and the lost to the warriors in the finals. Why would 2018 be different if he was there?
That hyper aggressive version of LeBron was a result of Kyrie leaving imo. He wanted to prove a point that he didn’t need Kyrie and that him being gone wouldn’t stop him from the finals
“It takes delusion” is a real ass quote
Man, sometimes you have to pay to see the flush. You know Bron is amazing, but what if.
Kyrie would never know if he could be Batman unless he tried in his prime. That’s just how it is. He had to learn the hard way.
Brady had to go to Tampa, Shaq to Miami, just to prove that they were the man.
Shannon too much of a fan to even understand what Shump is really saying
He called Anthony Bennett “Andrew Bennett” and Shump “Trump”
His LeBron dickriding is so genuine lmao
I was looking for ⬆️comment….💯 Facts! Shannon sounded like he was 15 yrs old.
There is no world where Ky could beat LeBron.
Yeah, in order to beat prime LeBron the two best players literally had to team up after one of those players was on a team that had the greatest season of all time.
they literally beat Lebron without KD lol
With an Australian line cook as his second option. Sure
oh so now its not about just Lebron now?
when they lose, its about “the team”. when they win, it’s all about Lebron lol
Obviously it’s a team sport, the team around the stars matters as much as the stars themselves. But let’s be honest, the best player in all of those series was always LeBron. I doubt the Cavs could’ve beaten the KD Warriors, but I do think they probably win in 2015 if Love and Kyrie don’t get hurt, and it’s true that Curry and Draymond called up KD to make sure they could beat the Cavs the next year after losing in 2016. They’ve admitted so themselves
They’d only win bc LeBron made them😭
And 2016 the Cavs had a lot of luck on their side. League suspending Draymond, bogut and iggy injuries, Steph knee issues. Can always play that game
Dray got himself suspended. Perpetual line stepper.
That’s funny. LeBron has lost in the NBA Finals 6 times 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂. He’s very beatable for a chip. Clearly. He had the Heat and lost to Mavs and Spurs. Kyrie with the right team around him could have beat him.
This isn’t Twitter and you aren’t getting impressions. You can drop the act.
Best handles ever but prob top 5 dumbest guys 2 play in NBA.
Kyrie think he KD and he not
Excuse me? What has KD done? Joining a 73-9 Warriors team and winning a championship doesn’t make him great.
What’s wrong with that is simple.
Kyrie is not LeBron. He’s not Kobe. He’s not Steph. He’s not KD. I can go on but yall get it…
He overestimated his own ability to lead a team and win championships. He’s not that guy. No shade he’s a great player but there’s a number 1 dog on every team.
I think that’s fine, but i’m not mad at him for going to find out. Some people never take the chance to find and miss out on some opportunities to grow.
It was idiotic and part of him listening to and believing the IGNORANT narrative that he bailed LeBron out and he should have won MVP. He should have stayed with the team a couple more years and competed with LeBron and had people debating who was the better player on that team and he would have possibly have 2 more championships to put him in the conversation with the greats
Kyrie should have run it back for at least two more years before going out on his own
Shump is the storytelling GOAT
“I don’t think that was ever gonna happen”. What a dumb response by Shannon. Missing the whole point. Exactly what Iman said, it doesn’t matter if it happens or not, Kyrie is a competitor and understands it needs to be attempted. It can’t be attempted if you’re on the same team.
I will always love Kyrie idgasf🤣
Kyrie is Kyrie. He will always be known as an NBA legend
Was this before or after he thought the earth was flat
Legit
Keep this in mind when you keep saying LeBron should go to GS
he’s not wrong
And then he realized later on that he can’t be really leading a team, he can’t be that guy, so by the end of his career he still end up teaming up with another Lebron and guess what it works for him again.
and thats okay. he was a young brash player (like most stars that have reached the mountaintop), and he grew out of it and still played some good basketball.
The Kyrie/Waiters backcourt would had the Cavs in Vegas had Bron not shown up
Perennial lottery
Yo forget about the interview I didn’t recognize Shannon
Kyrie a whole bitch
Kyrie didn’t want to LeBron to leave him, he wanted to leave LeBron
I’ve always lowkey thought that Kobe prevented LeBron from acquiring more rings by being in kyries ear. Obviously the whole “ im not a second fiddle” worked out for him. Always wondered if he gave kyrie the same advice.
Lebron wasn’t winning more rings with Kyrie even if he stayed. Kyrie started getting hurt constantly.
Except unlike Kobe, Kyrie would come up with excuses to skip games. I can’t fathom Kobe missing a game to go to some birthday party
To say he’s the no team up guy while knowing he later chose to “join up” with Durant & Harden is just reckless bloviating.
So he went afterwards to Boston to team up with Tatum, Horford, Smart and Brown? LOL
They were close 🤷🏽♂️
KyGOAT
Lol kyrie is not a team up guy?
I would like to agree with shump but what about leaving to BK to team up after 1 season giving it ago himself with Boston.
Shump is just spitting bunch of what-ifs nonsensical facts lmao
And that’s exactly why he ended his ring count in CLEVELAND. Dummy should have understood the assignment and won 4-5 rings before Lebron got old so he could become the player folks debated about as being the greatest player in that team/from that era like they debate Shaq vs Kobe.
i guess its shit on kyrie time. dont forget he made a great comeback after his fall from grace. he went through his dumb 20s phase and came out a better person at the end of it.
people didn’t like Kyrie cuz he refused to get the jab
Confirmation Kyrie was dumb
But bu but it WAS THE MEDIA!!!!!
Kyrie is not like Kobe. Best I can give you is Iverson with his decisions
Says a casual fan as opposed to a man who played with and against them.
Why are you so mad? You want actual players to be on reddit giving opinions? You are special.
I don’t have to be mad to point out you don’t know what you’re talking about.
How would I not know ball? I’ve been watching since early 2000s. Kyrie has the same build and play style as Iverson. Unfortunately, Iverson never got a chip but neither did Kyrie when he was by himself. Just like Iverson, kyrie went to different teams while still playing well. I also find it hilarious when I compared him to Iverson, you got offended when Iverson was elite in his time.