The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers got together for a 10-year reunion in the United Kingdom recently. LeBron James was there. Kevin Love showed up. J.R. Smith, Tristan Thompson, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova all made it. One guy didn’t: Kyrie Irving.
And that got Gilbert Arenas talking.
On his podcast, The Gilbert Arenas Show, the former NBA guard said he hopes whatever lingering tension exists between Irving and his old teammates eventually fades. Because the 2016 title matters more than whatever went wrong after.
What Arenas Said About the Cavs Reunion
“It would be good to see them together having fun,” Arenas said. “I mean they both stamped themselves in history because of that championship… So there shouldn’t be no beef.”
Arenas zeroed in on the obvious point that both Irving and James needed each other to make that title happen. Irving hit the biggest shot of the series — that go-ahead three over Stephen Curry in Game 7. James averaged 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 8.9 assists in the Finals and somehow led both teams in all five major statistical categories. Together they erased a 3-1 deficit against a 73-win Warriors team.
“Hey, I helped you get your third. You helped me get my first,” Arenas said. “We both champions because we played together. So why are we even at this point? The bigger picture is… You became your first time champion. I became I got my third. You got to look at that part of it.”
Why Irving Might Have Stayed Away
Irving requested a trade from Cleveland in 2017. He wanted out from LeBron’s shadow and wanted to run his own team. That decision led to years of reported tension between the two stars, though both have softened their public comments over time. Irving even apologized to James a few years back for how he handled the request.
But the reunion was in London during NBA Paris Week events, and Irving had no public commitments there. The Mavericks guard has been quieter than usual this offseason, and skipping a reunion doesn’t necessarily mean bad blood. Sometimes schedules just don’t line up.
Arenas thinks time will smooth things out regardless.
“At some point in time, the older you get, the wiser you get, they’re gonna realize we did good,” he said. “Just in the moment of time when we were young and younger we are, selfish thoughts kicked in and it is what it is.”
He also pointed to outside influences as a common source of conflict between star players. “But most times, the beef starts because of outside influence. It gets you thinking that this person is doing this and saying this and you start feeling yourself on this situation… it happens all the time.”
Irving and James together were electric. They won a title that felt impossible at the time. Whether that legacy matters more than whatever broke them apart is the kind of question that only gets answered when both guys are old enough not to care anymore.
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