Kyrie Irving said the Cavaliers wanted to trade him. LeBron James said that ‘makes no sense’.

Kyrie Irving guided the Boston Celtics to the best record in the Eastern Conference, but he reportedly had to request a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers to get there. Now, as part of a wide-ranging feature by ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan, Irving said he believed the team attempted to trade him well before he requested to be moved.

“They didn’t want me there,” Irving told MacMullan.

LeBron James, however, shrugged off the notion that the three-time and reigning Eastern Conference champs wanted to move the same star guard who hit the series-deciding shot in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals to deliver Cleveland its first championship in franchise history.

“That makes absolutely no sense,” James declares.

Asked to elaborate, James smiles politely, slings his bag over his shoulder, and exits the arena.

How did two people come away with two vastly different conclusions about the way Irving exited Cleveland?

In mid-June, Cleveland explored a three-team trade with both Phoenix and Indiana that would have sent Irving and Channing Frye to the Suns and brought Eric Bledsoe and Paul George to Cleveland, according to MacMullan. The Suns didn’t want to move the No. 4-overall pick that they eventually used on Josh Jackson, so nothing materialized further.

But James and Bledsoe are good friends and share the same agent — James’ childhood friend, Rich Paul. Because of that Irving, according to MacMullan, suspected it was James who orchestrated the trade talks.

The Cavaliers say it was former general manager David Griffin who began talks with Phoenix and Indiana, but according to MacMullan, Cleveland explored three-team trade talks — presumably including Irving — with Indiana and Denver shortly after Griffin’s contract expired.

Those reported explorative talks weren’t included in the reports that surfaced one week after Irving requested in late July, but the all-star guard stayed silent because “he knew the truth and so did they.”

It’s part of the general manager’s job to monitor the pulse of his locker room. And according to MacMullan, Griffin “sensed both [Irving’s] unhappiness and his restlessness and was preparing for the possibility that Irving would request a trade.”

Another teammate, who was not named in the ESPN piece, shared that sentiment.

“Ky wasn’t as happy last year,” the unnamed Cavalier said. “He wasn’t disruptive — just a little disconnected.”

Well, we won’t know, will we? Unlike Irving’s trade request, some things remain under wraps for the long haul. Since both the Cavaliers and James have openly refuted Irving’s claims, that probably won’t happen.

If you haven’t read MacMullen’s awesome feature, you should set 10 minutes aside and do so here. But the gist of the trade portion of her story is this: the Cavaliers are a well-oiled, championship machine, but its pieces weren’t a perfect fit all the time.

For example, playing point guard with James can probably be frustrating considering he is the team’s primary facilitator and decision maker at the forward spot. Case-in-point: during a mid-season practice in the 2016-17 season, Irving and head coach Tyronn Lue were at odds over pushing the pace on offense.

Irving was reluctant to do so because he can get his shot at any time within the confines of a half-court set. Lue said it wasn’t about his shot, it was about his teammates’.

Irving’s response, according to MacMullan: “Well, that’s No. 23’s job.”

This story appears to corroborate an anecdote Griffin mentioned in an exclusive interview with Fear the Sword last April.

He doesn’t like to push the ball, it’s just not his nature. He’s gotten by in the halfcourt his whole life because his handle is so good, he never felt the urgency to press the ball, whereas most guys develop their game as to what they need to do to succeed. Ky never had to do that. So when you’re explaining to him why it’s important to push the pace and I think he was reluctant to do that, because, well, ‘because I can get mine regardless’. Well, it’s not necessarily about you. So I think where he’s grown and evolved is he’s starting to figure that out.

Another example: James made a habit of referring to Irving as “the kid.” You can see Irving’s visible frustration here when a pool reporter asks what kind of “father figure” James has been to him.

According to MacMullan, some of his Cavaliers teammates said Irving took being referred to as “the kid” as a subtle lack of respect, though it’s unclear whether that is the reason he requested a trade.

When the Cavaliers lost to the Warriors in last year’s NBA Finals, Irving was the one who pushed for an exit interview first, according to MacMullan. But Griffin’s contract expired June 19, leaving the Cavaliers GM-less for 36 days — including two weeks of wining and dining Chauncey Billups — before naming Koby Altman the new GM.

For over a month, Irving had no one to talk to.

James and Irving didn’t see eye-to-eye on some things, but it doesn’t seem all the parties involved had a chance to sit down and discuss their grievances with one another. Had that happened, the ending to this story could have been a bit different.