Silver: Irving-Cavaliers drama not what NBA wants
The implosion of the Cleveland Cavaliers following All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving's request to be traded has created a ton of buzz at a time when there usually isn't much at all for the NBA.
Commissioner Adam Silver can't help but love when the eyes and ears of the sporting world are on his league during the slow days of summer. He would just prefer if it came as a result of news that wasn't going to hinder one of his top teams.
"I love the interest. I'm not ecstatic about the drama," Silver said during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show. "I feel bad for whatever is going on in Cleveland. I have no first-hand information, but I assume where there's smoke, there's fire.
"It's upsetting to hear that when you see superstar players who have co-existed, who've had so much success together - obviously three Finals in a row, and one championship - to hear that, for whatever reason, there's a sense that they can't continue to co-exist. Yeah, that's drama, but it's not necessarily the kind of drama that the league wants."
Irving wanting out of Cleveland reportedly stems from his desire to be less of a sidekick and more of a focal point, which is difficult to do when competing alongside LeBron James.
Silver has said in the past that he didn't have a problem with the NBA's lack of a competitive balance, with the Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors recently becoming the first teams to battle in the Finals three-straight times. He feels periods like that don't tend to last that long, and everyone else eventually catches up to close the gap over time anyway.
There's no denying losing a talent the caliber of Irving would hurt the Cavaliers, depending on what they'd receive as compensation in a trade, of course. With so many blockbuster moves having transpired over the last month, the landscape of the NBA has underdone quite the transformation awfully fast. An Irving trade would simply add to the growing list of stars who are changing homes for the 2017-18 campaign and beyond.