It’s no secret that All-NBA Los Angeles Lakers combo forward LeBron James greatly misses his former Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star running mate Kyrie Irving, now in the midst of his first NBA Finals appearance without James. Irving’s Dallas Mavericks trail another of his former teams, the Boston Celtics, 1-0. Game 2 is slated for Sunday evening.
James recently took to his podcast, “Mind The Game,” which he co-hosts with rumored Lakers head coaching candidate JJ Redick, and reiterated his feelings about his old Cavs colleague. Irving echoed those sentiments in a pre-Finals presser.
Now, another former Cavs teammate of James’ has spoken out about the convenient timing of the 20-time All-Star’s sentiments.
During an appearance on ESPN, former Cavaliers center-turned-media personality Kendrick Perkins railed against James seemingly stealing the moment of Irving’s Finals run to re-center the narrative around himself.
“Here we go again, Bron weaseling his way into somebody else’s moment,” Perkins said. “This is not about you! Your team is at home. This is about the Mavs and the Celtics, but yet you’re so mad and disappointed that you’re not Kyrie Irving’s running mate no more. Here we go again.”
In response, James unfollowed Perkins on X (as well as former All-Stars Blake Griffin and Ben Simmons). Perkins has a bit of a point, but in fairness Irving is at the center of the basketball conversation right now, and James has a new basketball podcast, so it only makes sense that he would address his fellow former 2016 world champion. It caused a bit of a media storm considering that James seemed to have wanted L.A. to trade for Irving at the 2023 deadline (something the Lakers apparently did attempt to do).
