It was clear as a bell to me.
Called KI 'kid' about 5 times. Why not the simple pronoun, 'him?'
Said he was ready to 'hand over the keys'. 'When he's ready.' Ready, according to Lebron. Irving, going into his 7th NBA season, obviously, feels ready, thank you.
Said he basically taught Kyrie everything, or at least that he tried to.
Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather walk than kiss the anointed one's blessed rear end if I were a legit star in my own right and was given no respect whatsoever. James went back to CLE because Kyrie was young and the real deal, and Cle could deal for a 3rd (and did) and then he could win and let the young stars carry him a good part of the way.
'When he's ready' sounds like when Lebron leaves or retires, to me, and I doubt that he could have taught Kyrie anything of substance regarding closing games, lol. I'll never understand what happened to Lebron insofar as clutch play is concerned. The guy was a definite killer through 08-09 and then it's like he had some kind of midlife crisis and somehow forgot how to seal the deal. Weird. That's not to say that he hasn't made any big shots since then, or anything, but he just no longer appears to have that gear, so to speak, and prefers putting the fate of the outcome of a game/series in the hands of a friend (Wade), hired gun (Ray Allen), or whatever category into which Kyrie falls? A specialist, perhaps? Idk
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