Much of Wednesday's Donovan Live Postgame Show was spent looking back on the frustrating 9th inning that sunk the Tribe on Tuesday against the Reds.
Because the Indians came back and hammered Cincinnati, 19-4, on Wednesday evening, we can give them a break here.
There was something else I wanted to bring up with Jimmy on the show in addition to the Tribe. Our Phil Trexler stopped by my desk for a conversation earlier in the day and asked me the following: Why aren't more people focusing on the fact that superstars don't seem to want to play with LeBron James?
It's a fair question.
There's Kyrie Irving, who we'll get to in a moment.
There's Paul George, who was supposed to follow in LeBron's footsteps to his hometown of Los Angeles, yet decided to stay in Oklahoma City.
There's Chris Paul, who opted to remain with the Rockets.
And suddenly, all is quiet on the Kawhi Leonard trade front.
What gives?
Jimmy brought up the point that playing with James is taxing at times. He's ball-dominant and everything has to go through him. LeBron makes you have to change your game in order to fit in (see Love, Kevin and Bosh, Chris, if you need examples). You go from being a superstar to merely a contributor.
James is also taxing to be around off the court. There are a lot of people connected with LeBron that become team employees and receive perks that can make others around feel some jealousy.
About an hour after Jimmy and I did our show, I heard about former Cavalier GM David Griffin's podcast interview with Jeff Goodman. Griff was asked about the circumstances that led Kyrie Irving to want to leave the Cavs last summer. I can't recommend this enough.
Here are some example quotes from the interview:
--“Kyrie and LeBron didn’t have drama as individuals,” said Griffin. “They could laugh and joke and make fun of each other just like everyone else did on the team. But there was more and more friction in the process in terms of how we go about winning games. It became really evident to Kyrie that he wasn’t going to have the template from which to find out how great he can truly be because he wasn’t going to have the ball enough.
--“Not everyone wants to play with the best player of his generation. People have had the opportunities to join forces and didn’t. If Kyrie envisions himself as an Alpha and LeBron is an Alpha, the worst thing you can do is say you can do this and then sink us (Cavaliers) from within. If you can’t be over yourself enough to be part of winning and that’s all you care about just say so and there’s no judgment here but don’t sink us from within. I gave Kyrie a lot of credit for just saying ‘listen I think there's a better expression from my game somewhere else'."
Watch the Donovan Live Postgame Show in the player above