APPLE OF HIS EYE
Irving wants trade and likes Knicks but team won't deal KP
When the NBA Finals ended in defeat to the Warriors after five games for the Cavaliers, Kyrie Irving spoke long and glowingly about playing with LeBron James.
“He’s freaking awesome,” Irving said after Game 5. “As a student of the game, it would be a disservice to myself if I didn’t try to learn as much as possible while I’m playing with this guy.”
Guess he has learned as much as possible. Irving has asked the Cavaliers for a trade, a league source confirmed, and one of the preferred landing spots is the Knicks.
And when word of the 25-year-old All-Star point guard’s wish list — identified by ESPN as New York, Minnesota, Miami and San Antonio — came out, one phrase, or variation of it, followed repeatedly: “Not unless the Knicks give up Porzingis.”
The consensus feeling among several NBA types was the Knicks don’t have the assets to get Irving, a bona fide star and former All-Star Game MVP. Kristaps Porzingis is the Knicks’ most desirable chip and when word came out before the draft that then-president Phil Jackson was fielding offers for the 7-foot-3 Latvian forward, fans stopped just short of torching the Garden.
The Knicks would love to work a deal for Irving and obviously would prefer to deal Carmelo Anthony in a package that likely would include first-round picks. A league source said Friday night the team does not want to part with Porzingis or Willy Hernangomez. In the past, Cleveland was reluctant to deal Kevin Love for Anthony.
“You never say never, but I just don’t see how the Knicks could do it, unless they included Porzingis and a lot of first-round draft picks,” one rival exec said.
“Look at the Knicks’ roster. I just don’t see it,” another NBA insider said.
The Irving bombshell news hit Friday afternoon when ESPN reported Irving, who grew up in West Orange, N.J., had asked Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert for a trade last week.
“Kyrie and I had a meeting with Cavaliers leadership where we discussed many different scenarios in reference to Kyrie and his future with the team,” his agent, Jeff Wechsler, told ESPN. “The basis of those discussions and what went on in those discussions are between the Cavs and us. We are respectfully going to keep those private.” Yeah, good luck with that. The Knicks’ offseason has been a cool breeze compared to the one endured by the Cavaliers. Irving told Sports Illustrated the Cavs were in a “peculiar place.” James has seemed frustrated over both the firing of general manager David Griffin and the team’s lack of gain on the free- agent market. ESPN reported James was “blindsided and disappointed” by Irving’s request to leave.
So, go ahead and plot the Celtics for the top seed in the East again in 2018.
The fracture for Irving, according to reports, is that he wants to be in a situation where he is the centerpiece, and does not want to play with James any longer. James always has been sort of, you know, the key guy.
So Irving’s words after Game 5 during which James became the first player to average a Finals triple-double ring hollow.
“Every single day demanding more out of himself, demanding more out of us, the true testament of a consummate professional,” Irving said of James. “And that’s the type of guy that I want to be with every single time I’m going to war, because I know what to expect, and you stand your ground, too, with a leader like that.
“That’s what I’m going to continue to do, because I know that if we continue to be with one another and keep utilizing one another, man, the sky’s the limit. So, I’ve learned a lot and I will continue to, and I couldn’t be more proud of that guy.”
But he’d rather be somewhere else.