Kyrie Irving reportedly didn’t just ask the Cleveland Cavaliers to trade him last summer. He practically pushed his way out the door, according to a report Thursday by Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon.
Vardon reports that after Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert refused to honor Irving’s trade request, the All-Star guard threatened to sit out the season to have surgery on his knee, “convincing Gilbert and Cleveland’s front office that the relationship was not salvageable,” according to multiple unnamed sources.
The procedure, which Vardon described as “a follow” to the surgery Irving had in 2015 to fix his broken left kneecap, is typically done in the offseason.