Chauncey Billups on Kyrie Irving’s trade request: “It didn’t really surprise me.”

On Tuesday, ex-Cavaliers team president candidate Chauncey Billups appeared on the Vic Lombardi Show, a sports radio program in Denver. During his appearance, Bilups touched on his interview process with the Cavs, why he turned the job down and more,

Most notably, Billups said that he not surprised by Kyrie Irving’s trade request and said he knew more about the situation than the rest of the world:

It’d be fair to wonder if this was a major reason why Billups turned down the job. If he knew that from day one he’d have to deal with that in addition to the Cavs’ other nonsense, it’d be understandable that’d he’d be hesitant to take the job. Plus, he was reportedly low-balled by Dan Gilbert and would have to uproot his life to take the job. Maybe the Irving trade demand was one step too far for what would have been Billups’ first job in an NBA front office.

The Cavs ultimately hired Koby Altman, who was an assistant GM under David Griffin, as GM. His hiring was officially announced on Monday.

Billups also said he did not talk to LeBron James until after the interview process was over and than it was a gut decision to not take the job in the end. Additionally, he said LeBron potential leaving was not a reason for him to not take the job and that a rebuild offered a unique opportunity, but said it would hard to rebuild the Cavs if a compete tear down happened.

You can hear Billups’ full appearance on the show here or below: