Cavs News: Dwyane Wade & Tyronn Lue Respond To Kyrie Irving’s Negative Comments About Cleveland
The NBA regular season is less than a week away, but already some dramatic storylines are emerging ahead of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics game. The big NBA trade that rocked the league weeks ago involved superstar Kyrie Irving, who had requested to be traded, finally getting his wish. He was dealt over to the Boston Celtics, one of the few teams with enough to exchange. The Cleveland Cavs picked up several players, including NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder, as well as a draft pick in the deal. Irving seems to love his new home in Boston to the point he made comments considered as “shade” thrown at Cleveland.
The Boston Globe initially reported Irving’s comments in which he indicated that he felt the city of Boston was “so real [and] alive.” Irving also mentioned it was an “ongoing, thriving city. Consistently.” Those remarks, among others about Boston’s city feel, were made when Irving was in Charlotte, North Carolina, for an NBA preseason matchup with the Hornets. Now that they’ve been circulating, the media is asking Irving’s former coach and a new member of the Cleveland Cavaliers what they think about what he said. Tyronn Lue and NBA star Dwyane Wade were each asked about it and seemed to give similar answers.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN provided head coach Tyronn Lue and Dwyane Wade’s comments when asked about what the new Celtics star said. Lue made sure to praise the city in which he’s currently working without taking any shots at his former player.
“I don’t know. He can do what he wants to do. But we know in Cleveland, we have a great sports town in Cleveland. A great city, fans behind the teams 100 percent, so I’m happy to be here.”
One of the new stars on the Cleveland Cavaliers who will be filling in now that Irving has departed is Dwyane Wade. This will be his first season playing with the team and in the city for that matter. For comparison’s sake, Wade has spent the majority of his playing career in the major cities of Chicago and Miami. With that said, he made sure to still keep his answer political enough when asked about what Kyrie Irving commented.
Wade mentioned that he tries to not be “oversensitive” to comments he hears or reads because he wasn’t around for the context in which it was said. He added that he feels you could look at the comments in different ways.
“Boston is a big sports town. It has the history there. And I think that’s one thing, if you want to read the quote, they have an amazing amount of sports history and all the championships from football to baseball to all four sports. I think, depending on how you want to take it. If you’re Cleveland and the way they were left, you read it one way. If you’re a sports fan somewhere else, you read it another way. So it just depends on how someone wants to take the quote when someone says it. Unless you were there and you heard it and saw his facial reaction and know how he really meant it. That’s how I look at things.”
Based on Dwyane Wade’s comments, it seems he can sort of see where Kyrie Irving is coming from. Wade made a decision to leave his longtime team, the Miami Heat, to join the Chicago Bulls last season. Now he’s left the rebuilding Bulls for the contending Cleveland Cavaliers, once again joining LeBron James. As far as his feelings over what city he plays for, one has to wonder how Cleveland compares to Miami and Chicago for him.
While talk is one thing off the court, the players are most likely looking more forward to letting their actions speak next week on the hardwood. Kyrie Irving’s Boston Celtics will have to visit the “less real” city of Cleveland to play the Cavaliers in the NBA’s opening game next Tuesday.
[Featured Image by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images]
