John Wall calls Kyrie Irving’s trade request “crazy”

Kyrie Irving’s trade request caught a number of people off guard, including Wizards guard John Wall.

In an interview with Chase Hughes of CSN Atlantic, Wall said Irving’s trade request was “crazy to me” and that he’d want to stay put if he’d been to three straight NBA Finals like Kyrie:

That was crazy to me. I didn't know that was happening at all. Well, too bad. It's kinda tough. If I had been to three straight [NBA] Finals, I'd want to stay but you never know what type of relationship or what type of details they have going on the backside. Nobody knows what's going on behind closed doors. He's one of those guys who wants to be the main guy.

Wall also touched on the difficulties of playing with a player like LeBron:

It's a different situation when you're playing with a guy like LeBron James who is so dominant. Everyone is always going to be the second guy to him. It's kind of like what I tell all the young guys when they first come into the league. It's kind of tough to get the young guys to play as one on the floor because everybody is trying to build their name up and start their own foundation. It's kind of tough when you're always in the shadow of somebody else. That's something he probably got tired of.

Wall’s comments are fairly similar to Blazers guard Damian Lillard’s. In time, Kyrie could come to regret wanting out. But Wall also seems to get it, as he notes that maybe Kyrie does want to be the guy and no one really knows what the LeBron-Kyrie dynamic is like behind closed doors except the players themselves. And what Wall is hitting at is a reminder that, sometimes, these situations aren’t as simple as they seem.