Kyrie wanted out of Cleveland so badly, he threatened to get surgery

Looking at the Cleveland Cavaliers right now, you'd never know how turbulent things are in the locker room.

Actually, I'm kidding - you'd have to have been living in a cave for the last year to have not caught wind of some of the worst dysfunction I have ever seen a team go through - so bad, it's hard to find two guys who have not been linked in mutual enmity over the last few weeks. So it should come as no surprise to hear that Kyrie Irving was so intent on getting out of there this summer, he threatened to have knee surgery that would take him out of commission for much if not all of the present season if they did not trade him, according to Cleveland.com's Joe Vardon.

If what we're seeing now is representative of what Kyrie saw coming, it's hard to blame him. With the repeater tax looming and LeBron James likely leaving, the writing's been on the wall for some time now. Whether or not you think Irving is an intellectual like Jaylen Brown , he's not stupid by any means. For his (and our) sake, he had the cache and leverage to get out of town, and get out he did; for those of you worried about what this might mean for his knee, you can breathe easy. He was simply getting a clean-up of a previous surgery that will likely happen now next offseason.

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Image: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE
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