LeBron James Crushed When Cleveland Traded Kyrie Irving to Boston

The NBA’s power shift over the last decade has been dramatic. The Warriors and Cavaliers, who dominated the league with four straight Finals matchups from 2015-2018, are no longer the forces they once were.

After losing to Golden State in the 2017 Finals, Cleveland made a decision that would change everything – trading Kyrie Irving to Boston while keeping LeBron James.

Former Cavs coach Ty Lue recently dropped a bombshell on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast about that fateful trade.

LeBron was absolutely devastated when Irving was shipped to the Celtics.

“Bron was doing an autograph signing with jerseys for his foundation,” Lue recalled. “He dropped the marker and just lays back in his chair for about 10 minutes, doesn’t say a word, like pissed off.”

According to Lue, if Irving had stayed, James would have too.

The situation started after that 2017 Finals loss when Irving decided he wanted out. Despite being Cleveland’s first overall pick in 2011 and starting all 381 games he played for them over six seasons, Kyrie was ready to move on.

Lue’s story about breaking the news to LeBron paints a vivid picture of just how shocked the superstar was.

He was in the middle of signing autographs when Lue approached with the news. James immediately dropped his marker and just sat back, visibly annoyed, for a full 10 minutes without saying anything.

He was “crushed.”

Irving has since opened up about why he left. He’s talked about how playing alongside LeBron brings an intense media spotlight that became too much for him to handle. The pressure eventually pushed him to seek his own path away from James.

Just one season after Kyrie’s departure, LeBron also left Cleveland, heading west to join the Lakers.

Could the Cavs have won another title if they’d kept their dynamic duo together? It’s hard to say for sure, but the evidence suggests they might have.

Even without Irving, James somehow dragged Cleveland back to the Finals in 2018, where they were swept by the Warriors. Having Kyrie’s scoring and playmaking would’ve certainly made that series more competitive.

Now, as the 2025-26 season approaches, both stars have moved on completely – LeBron with the Lakers and Kyrie with the Mavericks.

What might have been remains one of the NBA’s great “what if” scenarios.