Kyrie Irving threatened to have season-ending knee surgery if the Cavaliers wouldn't trade him

According to reports, Irving held the team to a ransom after he was upset regarding being involved in trade talks.

What's the story?

Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com is reporting on yet another interesting development in the Kyrie Irving and Cleveland Cavaliers saga. Vardon reports that Kyrie would have knee surgery intentionally to avoid playing for the Cavs.

In case you didn't know...

Kyrie Irving was drafted first overall by the Cavaliers in the 2011 NBA Draft. Since then, he's become a 5-time NBA All-Star, including that game's MVP in 2014.

The heart of the matter...

If Cleveland didn't trade Irving before the start of training camp, he would sit out. Then, if they still didn't trade him before the start of the season, he would purposely have knee surgery so he wouldn't have to play for the team.

Opting to have surgery on his knee would have taken Irving out for most if not all of the season. Irving does need to have a clean-up procedure done on his knee due to a 2015 injury for a broken kneecap, and he plans on having that surgery this offseason.

In August of 2017, the Cavs finally complied with Irving's wishes and traded him to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zicic, and the Brooklyn Nets 2018 draft picks from the first and second round.

In an update to this story, Irving spoke with members of the media on Friday afternoon and stated that the report is false.

What's next?

The Boston Celtics (35-14) continue to lead the Eastern Conference as they lead the East by 1.5 games over the Toronto Raptors (32-14). Boston next faces the Golden State Warriors (39-10) in a major matchup this Saturday evening and the game will be nationally broadcast on ABC.

Author's take...

I don't think I would purposely go under the knife to avoid anything. The pain and rehab just to not play for a team, that is pretty extreme. Kyrie denies it, so it is hard telling if there was any truth to the rumors or not, but the relationship was so strained, it's possible.