Richard Jefferson was almost shipped out of Cleveland sooner because he leaked the Cavaliers’ NBA title rings
Before the NBA season got underway, the Cleveland Cavaliers made one last offseason move, trading veteran Richard Jefferson to the Atlanta Hawks. From there, Jefferson was waived and then he signed a one-year deal with the Denver Nuggets to keep his career going.
However, now we’re learning that Jefferson was originally supposed to be shipped out of Cleveland sooner than this fall, and it’s apparently because he upset management with his use of Snapchat.
David McMenamin of ESPN recently revealed that the Cavaliers had intended to trade Jefferson away from the team last year, but not because of his play on the court. No, then-General Manager David Griffin was ready to start making some calls because Jefferson had leaked the images of the Cavs’ NBA Championship rings a tad early, and he was quite furious about it.
"“He was nearly traded the summer after the championship because he revealed what the Cavs’ rings looked like on his Snapchat account before the team was ready to release them to the public. Then-GM David Griffin was so ticked that he was ready to ship him out of town, sources told ESPN, before eventually calming down and accepting Jefferson’s apology.”"
As it turns out, cooler heads prevailed and Jefferson was able to stay with the Cavaliers to make another run to the NBA Finals. There were no ring images to leak this time around, though, as the Golden State Warriors got their revenge on the Cavaliers and took care of them in five games.
But still, it really is wild to think that Jefferson was on the trading block over some leaked images of the title rings. Just when we think the NBA offseason shenanigans can’t get crazy enough, we learn that something like this almost took place last summer.