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As someone who likes to have fun online, I can’t help but respect how strong the subtweet game is for LeBron James. It’s possible that all of his tweets aren’t necessarily about someone on his team. But it’s hard to ignore the correlation and apparent relevance to a situation every time he does choose to tweet.
His latest tweet is an edited version of the lyrics from “Portland” by Drake off the album More Life. Unless LeBron is one of the few people on the planet still listening to More Life, the timing of the tweet is just a little bit suspicious:
Never let another ride your wave !!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 8, 2017
Could this just be lyrics of what he was listening to? Absolutely. Could this be LeBron upset that Kyrie Irving wants out and implying that he’s just been riding his wave? You bet.
If this is about Irving, it’s hard not to understand where LeBron is coming from. He has helped Irving grow and mature as a player over the last few years and has spent a lot of time hyping him up and saying that he’s a future MVP caliber player. Maybe that wasn’t enough when combined with the media criticism and front office dysfunction, but it’s not like he had been consistently pushing Irving out of the door.
It’s possible to understand both where James and Irving are coming from in this situation without painting somebody as a bad guy. As former Cavs GM David Griffin pointed out, Irving’s desire is understandable and he went about things the right way.
While James casts a large shadow and brings some negative aspects to a team situation, it’s largely just a result of his historic level of talent and hunger for greatness.
It’s unfortunate that the situation has fallen apart like this, especially as this will mark the end of what is likely the greatest era in Cleveland Cavaliers history. But as I said, nobody needs to be painted as a villain here.
Although the interview with Griffin yesterday on “The Jump” once again illustrated how well he understood the thinking of the players and how to manage the personalities. Maybe he should have been kept around a little longer.