Kyrie Irving reportedly demands trade: Cavaliers “fracturing”

Since coming up short against Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and the rest of the Golden State Warriors in the 2017 NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been on a tear, aggressively pursuing each and every free agent. Led by top-tier NBA GM David Griffin, they’ve showed themselves to be the creme-de-la-creme when it comes to picking up the pieces and moving on from a potentially crippling loss on the world’s biggest stage. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love — their three most important players — remain satisfied, nay, exuberant about the direction the team has taken since...

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Ah man, I’m sorry. I can’t keep it up anymore.

WTF CAVS?

Just a few hours ago, news broke that Kyrie Irving demanded to be traded. This, coming on the heels of an embarrassing, head-scratcher of a summer. The Cavaliers — fresh off three straight NBA Finals appearances, including winning their first ever championship in 2016 — are quite literally, in the words of respected columnist Zach Lowe, “fracturing.”

Here’s a timeline of events, from our very own Tim Cato:

[Read the whole article, he goes deep on every point, but I’m just giving you the hits for brevity’s sake]

1. The Cavaliers were walloped in the NBA Finals

2. Their general manager departed right before the NBA Draft

3. The Cavaliers didn’t draft anyone, of course

4. Cleveland missed out on both Paul George and Jimmy Butler

5. The Cavaliers dive into salary cap hell to re-sign their top players

6. LeBron James might not be coming back

7. Cleveland realized it can’t find a general manager

8. Irving demands a trade

Boy howdy, that’s a heck of an offseason, fellas. Could you have handled that any worse? Really? I’m serious. Could you have possibly. made. this. more. awk-—oh shit, wait.

“Where’s Dan? Where’s Dan Gilbert? He’s right outside. Grab him. Where’s Dan? Dan Gilbert just came in.”

Dan Gilbert walked in, and Kyrie Irving and LeBron James walked out.

Jeez, so much for the rivalry. I wanted to see the fourth installment of this Finals rematch movie.

Around the NBA internet

Kyrie made his move, and the internet exploded. Here were some of my favorite tweets from my favorite follows as we all tried — collectively — to make sense of this strange, ongoing development.

This outcome (him ending up on the Spurs) would be terrifying. Please don’t make this true, because Kyrie and Kawhi Leonard would be fierce.

Separately, he apparently requested to get traded to (among others) the Knicks?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. FLAT EARTH LIIIIIIIIIIVES.

Seriously, KNICKS?!

Luckily, Kevin Love was taking it well.

Apparently, LeBron was devastated.

So, man... Life is crazy in Cleveland and around the NBA right now. Kyrie may not believe in physics and in provable science, but he does believe his time in a Cavs uniform — alongside LeBron James, with whom he just went to three straight Finals — is over.

In other news, the earth is round, and people are going to continue to make head-scratching decisions. It’s the only constant in this dumb world.