One of the primary reasons LeBron James‘ current teammate Kyrie Irving reportedly requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers is that he is tired of playing in James’ shadow.
While James has been known as nothing but an exemplary teammate throughout his career, former Miami Heat teammate Mario Chalmers admitted that playing alongside him does come with its difficulties when he sat down with Sirius XM’s “Off the Dribble.”
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“It can be tough (playing with LeBron) sometimes just because he’s such a dominant player,” Chalmers said. “He’s the best player in the NBA, so it boils down to the coach. Is the coach going to get everybody else involved, or is he gonna let ‘Bron decide when he wants to get everybody else involved? That’s one of the things we were going back-and-forth with [in] Miami. But as a teammate — he’s a great teammate. I’ve never had any problems (with him), even when we had that one argument on the court. At the end of the day, we’re still brothers. We were over that after it had already happened, and the media made it more than what it was.
Still, Chalmers explained that he understands why Irving would feel overlooked because of James’ dominance. He did say, however, that he believes the personal rift between Irving and James is being overblown.
“I can’t say he’s a bad teammate. He’s a great teammate, a great dude. And when you’re a guy like Kyrie, and you’re young and you’re ‘the man,’ I can see him wanting to be traded to be on his own team,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s as personal as what everybody is trying to make it seem.”
Chalmers and James played together during all of James’ time in Miami and likely understands what it means to be a point guard in an offense led by James as well as anyone. While Irving and James’ situation may be completely different, this is certainly an interesting insight into what has become the most dramatic story of an already crazy NBA offseason.
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