Joe Vardon of cleveland.com reported Thursday that Kyrie Irving threatened to sit out this season and opt for knee surgery if the Cavaliers did not fulfill his trade request. As we know, the Cavaliers complied and dealt their star point guard to the Boston Celtics in late August.
“According to multiple sources, Irving threatened to sit out the season and have surgery on his knee, convincing Gilbert and Cleveland’s front office that the relationship with Irving was not salvageable.”
Vardon included that Irving needed a minor surgery on his knee as a follow up to the surgery he underwent after suffering a broken knee cap in the 2015 NBA Finals.
“It’s not pressing -- Irving is averaging 24.5 points and shooting a career-high .477 from the field -- but the procedure would ease some of the swelling and day-to-day pain he feels.
Such a procedure is typically done in the offseason; but he threatened to not come to training camp (first reported by ESPN) and then have the procedure during the season, leaving the Cavs without a point guard.”
The story also said that the Cavaliers do not regret trading Irving since he no longer wanted to be there. Cleveland has lost 11 of its last 15, and have been active seeking trades to improve their roster sitting 6.5 games behind the Celtics.