Kyrie Irving admitted he and LeBron didn't appreciate each other enough as teammates: "It was clear to me that we needed each other"

Kyrie Irving admitted he and LeBron didn’t appreciate each other enough as teammates: “It was clear to me that we needed each other” originally appeared on Basketball Network.

Kyrie Irving and LeBron James were never supposed to come apart so quickly. They made three straight NBA Finals together, brought Cleveland its first title, and carried one of the most dynamic duos the league had seen.

But underneath the wins, things never felt settled. The distance grew slowly; Irving’s disconnect was blatant in the Cavaliers locker room in his final season with the team, and when it broke open, it caught everyone off guard, including the championship duo that registered two groundbreaking plays in Game 7.

“[Playing with James] has its positives,” Irving said after being dealt from Cleveland to Boston, “and it also comes with responsibilities.

“It was clear to me that we needed each other.”

The statement didn’t come during their run. It came a year later, with space to look back and weigh everything that went unsaid. There were moments when both stars pushed in opposite directions.

Sometimes it was about control. Sometimes it was about trust. But Irving admitted there were points where he didn’t know how to balance his growth with what the team needed from him.

Tension that never found a release

One of those moments came during a stretch of midseason frustration. The team wasn’t clicking, and head coach Tyronn Lue tried to get the offense moving faster. Irving didn’t respond well at the time. In hindsight, he saw it differently.

“At that time, we had probably lost a few [games],” Irving said. “[Lue] is coming up to me and saying, ‘We’ve got to play faster,’ and I probably wasn’t willing to accept it at the time. So maybe I’d like a do-over on that.

“But those conversations go on every day in the NBA. In this case, instead of those things being addressed so you can move forward, it gets held on to, and it becomes a big thing. I was trying to figure out where I fit in and at the same time asking myself, ‘What’s best for the team?’

Sometimes, I didn’t know the answer. I had to figure it out on my own. It wasn’t like I was getting answers from everyone else.”

He didn’t point fingers. He didn’t place blame on James directly. But he also didn’t ignore the emotional space that had grown between them. When asked if he believed James viewed him as an equal on the court, Irving didn’t pretend it mattered much to him.

“I don’t know if he did or not, but I don’t really care,” he said. “I didn’t lose any sleep over it.”

Two stars on different timelines

The separation had already started by the end of their third season together. Irving, 25 at the time, requested a trade in 2017 and said later that he felt unwanted by the team. The Cavaliers didn’t try to convince him to stay. In his view, they were already looking to move forward.

Irving later said the Cavaliers “didn’t want me there.” When James was asked about that line, his answer was short.

“That makes absolutely no sense.”

It was a breakup without closure. Both players went on to new chapters, and both found different versions of success. But even now, when they speak about their time in Cleveland, there’s an edge of regret in how the relationship ended. They knew what they had. They just didn’t know how to hold onto it.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 10, 2025, where it first appeared.

Kyrie Irving admitted he and LeBron didn’t appreciate each other enough as teammates: “It was clear to me that we needed each other”

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