The Cleveland Cavaliers have been riding an emotional roller coaster this year.
At times they’ve looked like a playoff caliber team, and other times they’ve looked like one of the most poor and dysfunctional teams in the league.
The rides destination from the start was always the playoffs, and that ride all but came to an end with Saturday nights overtime loss to the Charlotte Bobcats — the surprise playoff team of the Eastern Conference — but for some strange reason nobody has gotten off of the roller coaster yet.
Despite failing to capitalize on a golden opportunity this weekend — two wins would have put them just 1 game back of the Atlanta Hawks for the final playoff spot — the Cavs lost twice, and the drama continues.
I don’t kno y & how I was put in this but y’all can’t believe everything yu hear!!!! That’s what media get paid for.
— Dion Waiters (@dionwaiters3) April 6, 2014
Waiters is referring to the commotion the media has caused over a reported rift between he and Kyrie Irving.
Now this is story is nothing new, but what is new is who it is coming from: Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon.
Gordon, who lives in the same building as Waiters, went on the ESPN circuit of shows last week and spoke of the problems between Kyrie and Dion.
“I talked about it with Dion. He’s my neighbor in my building so we hang out all the time,” Gordon said. “I’m aware of the rift in the locker room. That’s just alpha males and supreme athletes trying to share the spotlight.”
After Kyrie fired back, Gordon took to social media to take another dig at Irving:
Cavaliers beat writer Jason Lloyd is able to spin all of this random drama into some sort of sense:
Of course, common sense indicates Gordon came to that conclusion based off conversations with Waiters. And team executives haven’t always been sure the two would figure out how to coexist.
One team official said recently it has taken the entire village to get these two embracing each other. Former General Manager Chris Grant held multiple conversations with them in the past two years, as has acting GM David Griffin. Coaches both from the previous and current staffs have talked to them about learning to play together.
Will they figure it out? No one knows, but they finally seem committed to trying.
This season has been a lost season for the Cavaliers. They have dealt with difficult and frequent roster changes, a coaching change, a GM change, and Kyrie and Dion have struggled to develop together. Oh, and they will soon be eliminated from playoff contention.
But in the end, Lloyd, and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, have both challenged Irving to put this all to and end this summer when the Cavaliers offer him a max contract extension:
This will all reach a conclusion this summer. The Cavs will present Irving with a contract extension and if he rejects it, they’ll be forced to consider trading him. If he accepts it, all of this goes away.
…
And right now, Irving is looking for anyone to make life a little easier.
“For a third-year player, it’s been frustrating from the standpoint no other third-year player is probably going through what I’m going through,” he said. “It’s all [expletive].”
If it is, he can prove it this summer.