After being released as the GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers, David Griffin makes his first public comments, including Kyrie Irving’s trade request.
One of the hardest jobs in America was being the general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Managing the egos of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, while trying to balance a top-heavy roster with no salary cap space is certainly not easy. Constant drama surrounded the Cavaliers, but David Griffin seemed to be doing a fantastic job handling everything.
Amidst trade talks for Paul George and Jimmy Butler, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert decided to relieve Griffin of his GM duties. Since his firing, Cleveland has had an ugly offseason, including whiffing on trades for George and Butler, making irrelevant free-agent signings and waiting nearly a month to promote Koby Altman as GM.
The most important part of the whirlwind was their secondary star, Kyrie Irving, asking to be traded. This happened while Griffin was still in the building as GM, but he won’t be there to see if it actually comes to fruition.
Griffin made his first public comments since the firing, appearing on ESPN’s The Jump, where he had this to say about Irving’s trade request:
"Well, I think Kyrie’s going to end up getting traded..I don’t think this is youth and ignorance. I think he handled it exactly as he was supposed to. He went to Dan Gilbert privately and told him he would be happier playing somewhere else. The worst thing he could’ve done is pretend to be all in and sink the ship from within. Most guys don’t have the courage to do what he did."
Griffin is smooth with his words, because he isn’t necessarily supporting Irving’s request to be traded, but he supports the manner in which Irving handled his business.
He then noted during his appearance that he believes Irving will ultimately end up being traded.
David Griffin on "The Jump": I think Kyrie's going to end up being traded
— Rick Noland MG/CT (@RickNoland) August 7, 2017
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It’s been 18 days since the news leaked that the Cavaliers point guard wanted to be traded, so where will he end up?