Kyrie Irving: “I Haven’t Been A Leader, Not At All”

With the return of LeBron James and the imminent arrival of Kevin Love, the Cleveland Cavaliers have championship expectations for next season. In order to reach those heights, they’ll be counting on Kyrie Irving to perform at a high level as well. Irving is a great player, but he was also part of a very contentious locker room environment in Cleveland last season. After signing a max level extension with the Cavs this summer, Irving admits there’s a more compatible roster now for him to improve as a leader.

In an interview with Shams Charania of RealGM, Irving was very candid about how much he needs to improve:

“Everybody asks me if this is my year to be a leader … I haven’t been so far though, not at all,” Irving said. “I’ve just been a kid trying to figure it out. There’s no perfect way to be a leader, and coming in as a 19-year-old kid and having everything bearing on your shoulders, there are a lot of ups and downs. Now it’s about being the best every single day and not being afraid.

“I’m more than excited with our new veterans. I’m really excited just from the standpoint of how the locker room is going to go and how to really be a professional. I’m not saying that the veterans that we had weren’t professionals themselves, but we didn’t have enough. Given the right and wrong things to do in the league, I’ve had to learn on my own and that’s what some of us been doing.

“Now, we have guys who’ve been in the league for years, guys who’ve won championships and have had to give a piece of their game for the greater good of the team. It’s something I admire and something I’m going to learn from.”

The Cavs were expected to contend for a playoff spot last season, and Irving was expected to lead the way. Instead, the team stumbled to a 33-49 record and missed the playoffs. Along the way, the team dealt with a daily barrage of questions about problems in their locker room.

At the center of the locker room friction was a reported rift between Irving and teammate Dion Waiters. Both players are ball-dominant guards, and at times it was frustrating to watch the two of them try to coexist on the floor.

Waiters did nothing to hide his frustration, as evidenced by this classic exchange in a post game press conference last season:

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It’s reasonable to expect a much better locker room in Cleveland this season. Irving has acknowledged the need to grow as a leader, and Waiters has spoken candidly about making adjustments, including helping the team more off the ball. Aside from LeBron, the Cavs also added Mike Miller, James Jones and Shawn Marion. These are all veterans with championship experience who will command respect in the locker room.

Irving and Waiters will still need to grow up of their own accord, but they have a much better support system in the locker room now to help them do so. Add to the fact both publicly acknowledged the need to be better for the sake of the team, and these are all very encouraging signs locker-room rifts are a thing of the past in Cleveland.

Above all else, the team will win a lot more next year.

That also solves a lot of problems.

What do you think?

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