Photo Credit: Nathaniel S. Butler/GettyImages

Richard Jefferson’s Spontaneous & Honest Live Reaction On The Kyrie Situation

Richard Jefferson has a podcast called ‘Road Trippin‘. In its latest episode, the news of Kyrie Irving’s trade request broke, during the recording. But instead of pausing the recording or even stopping it, Jefferson spontaneously talked about Irving’s request, and let the people know what he thought of it.

RJ said that he wasn’t sure if the news were true or real, but he was immediately protecting Irving, explaining why Kyrie had such a tough stretch in recent years.

“Is it true? I’m finding out kind of now. This is what I will say about this, and by the time this gets out, whenever we air this in a few days, I don’t know. I don’t think that there’s a power struggle with LeBron and Kyrie, Kev. I think Kyrie is a hyper-intelligent kid. Really, really smart. Doesn’t get enough credit for how smart he is. And I think seeing that the franchise is in flux, I think seeing Griff leave and the amount of coaches.

I think Kyrie has had a much tougher time in this stretch of the organization than anyone really ever wanted to fully — He’s a No. 1 pick right after LeBron. Then he has three different coaches. Then LeBron comes back. Now, there’s trade rumors. Now, it’s LeBron leaving. At some point in time, anybody would want some sort of stability. Even if it’s the unknown. And I’m not saying that — I don’t know if he asked to be traded. I don’t know this.

But I will say that he’s had a tougher time if you look at from start to where we are right now — the ups and downs of a franchise — more than most. Even if we’ve successful and even though we’ve won a championship, and he’s been an All-Star, there’s still been so much of a wave to be like, ‘Yo, we’re gonna sit here for a whole year on whether or not LeBron’s coming back.’ That’s gotta be tough on anybody.”

Jefferson is a great guy, and an even better teammate. Instead of throwing shade at a player who wants to leave the team, he protects him and calmly explains how and why Kyrie’s situation led to such request.