NEW YORK — One day after posting on social media that he would like to see the NBA logo changed from Jerry West’s silhouette to Kobe Bryant’s, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving reaffirmed his stance and said he is OK if he’s a leader of the conversation.
“We want to set a standard and precedent, like this is excellence,” Irving said Thursday, after the Nets defeated the Orlando Magic 129-92. “Kobe Bryant. Logo. Yes. Needs to happen. I don’t care what anyone says.”
In an Instagram post Wednesday, Irving put up a photo of a modified NBA logo with Bryant swapped in as the figure in the middle with this caption: “Gotta Happen, idc what anyone says. BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE.”
Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant’s widow, shared Irving’s post to her Instagram story with the caption, “Love this. @KyrieIrving.”
Irving said Thursday night, “I want that to be something in history that is changed forever, that our generation was part of that change. And if that means that I have to lead that forward and get the conversation going, then great.”
In 2017, West said on ESPN’s The Jump that while it is “flattering” to be depicted as the symbol of the league, “I think if I were the NBA, I would be embarrassed about it. I don’t like to do anything to call attention to myself. If they would want to change it, I wish they would. In many ways, I wish they would.”
Irving said that he understands that his proposition doesn’t appeal to everyone.
“I know that it probably was met with some people that love it — that love the idea — and some people that don’t love it,” Irving said. “But, my thing is paying homage to the example that has been set by that man.”
Since Bryant’s death in a helicopter accident in January 2020, the idea of changing the logo to Bryant’s silhouette has gained traction. A change.org petition in support of the idea has gained 3.2 million signatures since early 2020. The creator of the NBA logo, Alan Siegel — current CEO and president of the brand identity and communications consultancy firm Siegelvision — told Newsweek at the time, “It’s quite clear that [Bryant] was a very respected figure by players and around the world and this is a really serious thing that should be considered by the league.”
Irving said Thursday that by advocating to make Bryant’s likeness the logo, he didn’t intend to disparage any of the other players who have had sizable impacts on the league.
“I think he deserves it,” Irving said. “I think his family deserves it. I think we deserve it as seeing greatness personified as Mamba. And anyone that’s coming into the league should know that that’s the example that was set.”
As the Brooklyn Nets were busy walloping the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, I was going back and forth in our NBA chat room with my editor, who at one point posed a question I hadn’t given much thought to: Why hasn’t James Harden received the same kind of vitriol for hopping on a superteam bandwagon that Kevin Durant did when he went to the Warriors?
It’s an interesting question. People went out of their way to pick bones with Harden while he was in Houston, where he was actually traveling the harder road, trying to slay the superteams, a seemingly admirable quest. It would stand to reason if he was that bright a target while battling the NBA behemoths, he would be an even brighter one when he joined them.
But it hasn’t worked out that way.
In fact, Harden — who posted a 29-point, 14-assist, 13-rebound triple-double in Brooklyn’s win over Sacramento on Monday — has become one of the more celebrated players in the league over the last month. Rightly so. He’s been brilliant with Brooklyn. But Durant was brilliant with Golden State, and four years later he’s still getting dragged for his decision, his back-to-back Finals MVPs treated by many as footnotes in a sellout NBA story.
The difference, of course, is Harden didn’t join a 73-win team that had already won a championship without him. When Durant joined the Warriors, barring injury, there was nothing that could go wrong. He was a near perfect player on a near perfect team. We don’t like certainty in our sports.
The Nets are not a perfect team, not even the title favorite in most people’s eyes, and it was no certainty Harden would fit. I would then posit, perhaps, that our collective fascination with all that could go wrong in Brooklyn — however ill-founded these concerns were — suppressed the typical annoyance we reserve for deck-stackers. How would all these moody dudes share one locker room, let alone one ball? Was defense even a consideration?
One month into the experiment, the defense is still a major question. Since Harden’s arrival, the Nets have the fourth-worst defensive rating in the league entering Monday. But the offense is magical. The “only one ball” crowd has been silenced by Harden, who has transitioned so naturally into a facilitator’s role that it makes you wonder how anyone could’ve ever questioned his capability, or willingness, to do so in the first place.
Sure, Harden was probably the most single-minded isolation scorer in NBA history with the Rockets, but if you think he wasn’t also one of the best passers in the world during that time, you weren’t paying attention. We’re sure to turn this Harden role shift into one of romantic sacrifice, and it’s true, Harden has been willing to swallow some of his scoring pride. But mostly it’s just what makes the most basketball sense.
Durant and Irving are better shooters, naturally suited to, and vastly experienced with, off-ball roles. Durant existed alongside Russell Westbrook in OKC, then Stephen Curry with Golden State. Irving played off LeBron James, then burned out in Boston because he could never quite master the delicate scoring-sharing balance.
Harden has taken that burden off Irving without completely compromising his own scoring aggression. He’s still scoring over 23 points a game. On Monday, he put up 29 points on 18 shots with Durant out. Irving got 22 shots for 40 points. This slight deference to Irving as a scorer is making Harden look like the generous hero in a way we could never look at him in Houston — even if Harden was only operating in accordance with the ethos of Daryl Morey, who built the Rockets in a way that demanded Harden function as a solo artist.
“I feel he’s been doing a great job of just managing the point guard role,” Irving said of Harden on Saturday. “We established that maybe four days ago. I just looked at him and said, ‘You’re the point guard, and I’m going to play shooting guard.’ And that was as simple as that.”
It really has felt that simple, but in truth this role clarity to which Irving is alluding, at least from the outside, was achieved a lot earlier than four (now six) days ago. Harden had 14 assists in his Brooklyn debut. In 15 games with Brooklyn, Harden’s had double-digit assists in all but two, and he’s averaging 12 dimes over that time.
Against the Warriors, Harden dished 16 assists while taking just 11 shots, hitting six of them, including five of his eight 3-pointers (one of the three misses was an end-of-quarter heave). It was the third time Harden has finished a game with more assists than shots attempted with the Nets. Meanwhile, Irving and Durant got up 36 shots. They combined for 43 points to Harden’s 19, while Harden led the team with a plus-28.
People love to talk about “chemistry” with newly formed teams. “It’s going to take time,” is the go-to line when a team fails to meet early expectations. But there’s been no need for such excuses with the Nets. Irving and Durant have been awesome all season, and Harden has enhanced their effectiveness rather than merely not interrupting it.
It’s not just about sacrificing shots, either. Yes, Harden is attempting eight fewer shots per game than he did last season in Houston, and 10 fewer than he took in 2018-19, but it hasn’t come at the cost of his scoring aggression. If he overdid the generosity, it would stunt his rhythm and the offense’s overall. but it’s his shot selection, and his overall decisiveness that’s proven most vital to Brooklyn’s offensive flow.
In short, Harden isn’t dominating possessions as extremely. He’s not dribbling the air out of the ball as his teammates grow roots watching him. With Houston, Harden would get into his bag and stay in there until he found something. In Brooklyn, he’s in and out, cognizant that over-creating in an environment rife with creators comes with diminishing returns, trimming his time of possession by nearly one second per touch from last season in Houston (a direct product of him dribbling less), which is a lot more than it sounds like.
*Numbers per NBA.com, entering Monday
2020-21 (with Nets)
5.3
4.7
2019-20
6.0
5.7
2018-19
6.3
5.9
2017-18
6.3
5.8
As to Harden’s improved shot selection, we’re speaking mainly about his signature step-back 3-pointer. So far with Brooklyn, Harden is taking four of those shots per game, down considerably from the 7.2 step-back 3s he averaged per game from 2018-20 with the Rockets.
To be fair, Harden made that shot at solid rates in Houston (38 percent from 2018-20), but at similar volumes, it wouldn’t stand the efficiency test in Brooklyn with Durant and Irving attempts representing the opportunity cost — particularly, again, when you factor in all the time Harden tends to spend dribbling before launching that shot.
2020-21 (with Nets)
3.5
3.7
2019-20
5.8
6.7
2018-19
6.7
8.1
All of this is the quantifiable evidence of Harden’s commitment to change, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Consider the alternative: Harden comes into Brooklyn guns blazing while Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, who were scorching hot prior to his arrival, hang out on the side? Facilitating was always going to be Harden’s smartest path, not to mention the easiest path, to immediate acceptance, both on the team and in the public eye.
Suddenly, Harden feels like an entirely different player, an actual fun player to watch as his most aesthetic talent — his passing — is now on nightly display, a welcome departure from his often paint-drying possessions in Houston. And that, in my opinion, is the big reason why Harden has avoided the superteam-joining backlash. Because he’s shown humility. A willingness to operate outside his own terms.
Perhaps that never should’ve been questioned in the first place, but it was nonetheless. People truly believed that Harden had gotten so used to playing one way that he was incapable of adjusting at this point in his career. The fact that he had made that adjustment so effortlessly speaks to his incredible talent, which, absent all the negative talk, the masses are perhaps starting to fully appreciate.
As the Brooklyn Nets ‘big three’ of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving continue to work on building their on-court chemistry, Irving and Harden had a brief conversation at practice this week to clarify their roles.
“We established that maybe four days ago now,” Irving said after the Nets’ 134-117 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday. “I just looked at him, and I said, ‘You’re the point guard, and I’m going to play shooting guard.’ That was as simple as that.”
Irving described the conversation as concise and matter-of-fact.
“It’s not a mystical conversation that we had,” Irving said.
In Saturday’s game against the Warriors, Harden had 16 assists, raising his 11.3 assist per game average since joining the Nets in mid-January. It’s the most assists he has dished out since the 2016-17 season, when he led the league with 11.2 assists per game for the Houston Rockets.
“He’s been taking control of the responsibilities and doing an incredible job,” Irving said. “It just makes my job easier to just go out and play free and just make plays.”
When Harden — a multitime scoring champion — was added to the Nets’ mix, an overriding question was: Is one basketball going to be enough?
Harden had discussed with head coach Steve Nash his willingness to play whatever role necessary upon his arrival from Houston.
On Saturday against the Warriors, Harden, Irving and Durant scored or assisted on 100 points for Brooklyn. Saturday marked the seventh game the trio played together — including last week’s matchup with the Toronto Raptors, during which Durant was yanked from the floor early because of the league’s coronavirus protocols.
Their record together is 5-2, including the loss to the Raptors that Durant was unable to finish.
“I came to this team knowing that they have two special scorers on this team,” Harden said. “Obviously, I score when I need to, but as long as I’m getting everybody involved and Ky (Irving) is getting the shots that he wants, KD is getting the shots that he wants, it’s pretty efficient. Offensively is not the problem for us, we can score in bunches; it’s defensively. It seems like we’re getting a rhythm as of late. We just got to keep it up.”
Another contender traveled to Brooklyn to take on the Eastern Conference favorites on Tuesday, and another contender fell against the might of their big three. This time, it was the Los Angeles Clippers attempting to contain the unstoppable Nets, and they failed in a 124-120 defeat at the hands of the NBA’s best offensive trio. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden combined for 90 points in the victory and came back from a 12-point first-half deficit to take the game and move within two of the Philadelphia 76ers for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The Clippers can at least leave New York satisfied that they held their own in the measuring stick contest. The Clippers opened the season with big wins against the Lakers and Nuggets, but have played a weak schedule since then. Now, more than 20 games into the season, they’ve seen where they stand against one of the teams they might need to beat in order to win the championship. Here is what they, and the Nets, can take away from Tuesday’s clash of the titans.
1. Brooklyn’s formula
Ignore the hiccups against Washington and Cleveland. Ignore the gaudy opposing point totals, the season-high individual scoring numbers from opponents and the late-game mistakes. Brooklyn has now played three playoff teams since acquiring James Harden, and a formula is beginning to present itself: keep the game in the 120s, not the 140s, get efficient offense from all three stars, and trust that one of them will break out with a 40-point explosion or monster triple-double.
That, in essence, is what happened against the Clippers. Irving led the way with 39 points, but Durant and Harden combined to shoot 64 percent from the field. Brooklyn’s defense has actually fared better on a relative-basis against good offenses (ranked 20th against top-10 scoring units since acquiring Harden, per Cleaning the Glass) than it has against mediocre ones (dead last) and bottom-10 opponents (23rd). That suggests that effort, to some extent, can lift the Nets up to competence, and it has against their best opponents.
On paper, this is what the Nets would probably want a Finals game to look like. Their offense, as a whole, is defense-proof. No team is ever going to lock down all three of their stars at once. They don’t have to be great on defense. They just have to be good enough to supplement an offense that will give them a chance against any opponent, and it was on Tuesday.
2. Big or small?
When Brooklyn played Milwaukee in its first possible playoff preview of the Harden era, it devoted 38 of a possible 48 minutes to DeAndre Jordan in an effort to deter Giannis Antetokounmpo at the basket. It worked, but Steve Nash has remained adaptable. Jordan played only 16 minutes against the Clippers as Jeff Green got the remaining 32 at center.
In theory, the plan worked. The Nets won the game, and even with Green as their small-ball five, they more than held their own inside. The two teams tied with 44 paint points apiece and Brooklyn won the rebounding battle 44-39. The Clippers aren’t a particularly paint-oriented team. The bulk of their shots are jumpers, and switching tends to be the best defense against such offenses. But playing that way allowed Kawhi Leonard to hunt for ideal matchups quite a bit early on. He managed to find Irving and Joe Harris on several early possessions as the Clippers built their first-half lead, and that strategy is going to be a common one Brooklyn should expect against elite offenses in the playoffs.
That’s not to say that, on balance, small-ball is a negative. Aside from the spacing benefits, it makes it far easier for the Nets to park Harden in the post defensively, where he is most comfortable and made an enormous impact on Tuesday. But the Nets won Jordan’s minutes by six points and lost Green’s by two. That’s not an enormous difference, but it points to the difficulty of shifting between identities. If the Nets can’t master one approach, how will they split the difference against teams that can punish both?
3. Who’s ready for primetime?
Every Nets starter played at least 32 minutes in this game. Four Clippers starters did, and Marcus Morris gave them 31 minutes off of the bench. Both teams held on for dear life when their reserves had to play. Not a single Clippers reserve had a positive point-differential. Brooklyn’s backups aside from Jordan attempted only five shots.
The Lakers won the championship last season for a variety of reasons, but nailing their minimum-salary signings was one of the biggest. Getting Dwight Howard, Markieff Morris and Rajon Rondo off of the scrap heap allowed them to play through the entire postseason without worrying about devoting minutes to any outright liabilities.
The Clippers are getting closer to that. Nic Batum has been a revelation, and Reggie Jackson is slowly starting to return to his Detroit form. The Nets still have a ways to go. They’ve allowed Landry Shamet to play through his struggles, but he’s still hovering around 30 percent from behind the arc. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot has been too inconsistent, and while Bruce Brown’s defense is sorely needed, he’s shooting less than 20 percent on corner-3’s so far this season.
The Nets trust only six players right now. The Clippers run deeper than that, but watching Luke Kennard play only four minutes in such a big game isn’t particularly encouraging. Brooklyn has the time and tools to improve its bench. The Clippers can reasonably hope that their answers are internal. But right now, both are relying very heavily on their starters to win games. That can work in the regular season, but champions need role players like Rondo and Howard to step up if they’re going to last four rounds.
4. Don’t forget who the Clippers were missing
Not to rain on Brooklyn’s parade, but this wasn’t quite the possible Finals preview we were hoping for largely because of one absence. Irving scored 39 points in this game, but the absence of Patrick Beverley, an All-Defense point guard, likely contributed to that. The Clippers are over 10 points per 100 possessions better with Beverley on the floor (allowing 101.7 points per 100 possessions) than they are with him off of it (111.8).
That isn’t to say that Beverley would shut Irving down. Nobody can do that. But rarely do All-Defense selections allow 39 points on 15-of-23 shooting. In a game with such thin margins, Beverley making Irving work a bit harder, or at least giving the Clippers more matchup versatility and limiting Jackson’s minutes on the floor, might have made all the difference. Eventually, the Nets are going to run into a team with three high-end perimeter stoppers in the postseason. Boston has three between Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Philadelphia has three between Ben Simmons, Matisse Thybulle and Danny Green. Milwaukee has never proven willing to deploy their best players this way, but Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday would all pose problems for Brooklyn’s stars. We still haven’t seen how the Nets would handle such defensive depth. They’ve had at least one exploitable matchup in all of their games thus far, but that is eventually going to change, and pegging Brooklyn’s playoff potential is going to be impossible before we see how they handle that.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — There’s an argument to be made that the Cleveland Cavaliers never should have traded Kyrie Irving, who sent a reminder of his brilliance this week with 75 points in two combined games against his old team Wednesday and Friday.
The Cavs should have called his bluff, let him undergo the threatened knee surgery and accepted the nagging headaches and potential chemistry issues that often come with a disgruntled star who was not only checked out mentally but didn’t want to play another second with teammate LeBron James. The revamped front office could’ve banked on winning as the remedy for the combustible setup. Could have held onto the hope that moody Irving would’ve snapped out of his funk in time for the Cavs to chase one final championship. The last hurrah.
Someone else can make that argument.
The Cavs — who moved their record to 8-7 Friday after beating Irving’s high-powered and title-hopeful Brooklyn Nets for the second time in three nights — aren’t where they are today without the gutsy deal that was once considered a lopsided laugher. Turns out, it was lopsided. Still is. Just not the way most originally believed.
The showpiece of that 2017 summer blockbuster that sent Irving to Boston — and gave him the chance to be the “focal point” — was Collin Sexton. Well, technically the “Brooklyn pick” that the Celtics were clutching tight. Many around the league didn’t think the Cavs could pry it away. It was expected to be a golden ticket to one of the top spots in the 2018 NBA Draft before the Nets went on a Spencer Dinwiddie-led surge at the end of the season, causing the Cavs to drop to eighth. No Luka Doncic. No Trae Young. No Deandre Ayton. Not even Jaren Jackson Jr.
The Cavs ended up with Sexton, now the cultural backbone and cornerstone of this rebuild. Sexton, alone, helps twist the perception of the maligned Irving trade.
One game after Sexton’s career night — causing everyone around the league to take notice with a 42-point masterpiece, outdueling Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden — the 22-year-old guard poured in 25 points to go with nine assists in the 125-113 win.
It’s Sexton’s 14th straight game with at least 20 points — a streak that goes back to the 2019-20 season. He became the first player in Cavs history to open a season with 20-plus points in his first 10 games. He keeps reaching franchise marks that put him in the company of James and Irving.
This is becoming an every-night occurrence, with glimmers of star potential that go back to last December, when Sexton began his launch as one of the Eastern Conference’s best.
His backcourt mate, Darius Garland, who returned from an eight-game absence because of a sprained right shoulder Friday, cast an early vote for his buddy to get some All-Star recognition.
“He deserves it,” Garland said while nodding his head. “He comes in every night with the mindset that you can’t stop him. And that’s what he shows the league, that’s what he shows the world and everybody that’s watching this basketball game. He’s getting wherever he wants. Getting teammates involved. I mean, a lot of people don’t do that. When you come off a 42-point game, you expect them to probably go for another 40-ball. He’s still getting his buckets, but he’s making everybody else better around him. That’s what I love about Bull right now. He’s just locked in. He wants to win. We all want to win. We’re all behind him.”
In his third season, typically when youngsters make “the leap,” Sexton is averaging 26.8 points on 52.3% from the field and 46.8% from 3-point range to go with 4.2 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals. His scoring average would rank 10th, tied with MVP candidate Doncic, if Sexton had enough games to qualify.
A low-maintenance player who embodies the Cavaliers credo is a heck of a starting point when reassessing the Irving trade.
The Cavs also received Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and broken-down Isaiah Thomas. Not great — until you start tracking further.
Without Thomas, there’s no Larry Nance Jr. The Cavs acquired Nance from the Los Angeles Lakers along with Jordan Clarkson midway through the 2017-18 season. It cost Thomas, Channing Frye and a first-round pick. Thomas’ salary number allowed the Lakers to dump Clarkson — a sticking point for them to give up budding Nance.
Now in his third full season with the Cavs — and sixth overall — Nance is a key piece of this nucleus. He’s the do-everything forward in the midst of a career year, averaging 11.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.4 steals.
An analytical darling, some of Cleveland’s tracking metrics point to him being one of the team’s most impactful players. Nance, who is under contract through the 2022-23 season, has a developing 3-point shot, hitting 42.9% from beyond the arc this season. He also looks more comfortable as a playmaker, a role he was never granted in Los Angeles. But the other end is where he shines, taking pride in his on-off rating and always peering at plus-minus. Integral to the team’s defensive turnaround, Nance is leading the league in steals and ranks sixth in defensive win shares.
“There isn’t anyone who personifies the type of person we want in this organization more than Larry,” Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He continues to be the motor that helps this thing keep churning on both ends of the ball.”
Crowder didn’t mesh well in Cleveland. He was flipped in a three-team deal with the Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings. The Cavs received George Hill and Rodney Hood.
About a year later, with Cleveland shifting its priorities, Hill was sent to the Milwaukee Bucks for John Henson, Matthew Dellavedova and a future first-round pick. Without Crowder and his valuable contract — a secondary reason the Cavs targeted him in the Irving deal — they don’t get Hill. Without Hill, the Cavs don’t have Andre Drummond and Jarrett Allen.
This past February, the Cavs used Henson’s expiring contract along with Brandon Knight to get Drummond, giving the Detroit Pistons salary relief they needed to rejigger the roster. Going back to last season, the Cavs are 11-11 with Drummond in the lineup, much more competitive than when he arrived.
Drummond can get out of control every now and then. Bickerstaff went a different direction to close Wednesday’s game. But Drummond rebounded Friday, recording another double-double with 19 points and 16 boards. The two-time All-Star has been a force at both ends, bullying opponents around the rim and anchoring the team’s defense the way he promised.
“The potential for this team is endless,” Drummond said. “We have all the tools to be a great team. There’s no reason why we can’t beat the best teams in the NBA. We have the heart, we have the drive.
“When I got here, my message to these guys was, we should never be afraid of anybody, we don’t care who’s on the court. It could be Kevin Durant and LeBron James. Doesn’t matter. We’re gonna play them the same way each and every night, we’re going to stick to our scheme and what works for us. We don’t want any cute games. Want to make it as ugly as possible and may the better team win. Night in and night out, it ends up being us.”
That first-rounder from the Bucks was the linchpin of last week’s Allen theft. The Nets didn’t want to part with the up-and-coming center. They shopped sharpshooter Landry Shamet instead, hoping he could fetch the final first-round pick the Nets needed to land Harden. When those attempts failed, they reached out to the Cavs who were delighted to jump in the deal.
Cleveland also got Taurean Prince, who looks to be much more than a throw-in piece. While the Cavs need to pay Allen, a restricted free agent this summer, they believe he’s the long-term answer in the middle — a 22-year-old shot-blocking pick-and-roll partner for Sexton and Garland.
Back to Clarkson for a minute. He was sent to Utah last December for Dante Exum and two second-round picks. The Cavs also got a trade exception. Not only did Clarkson’s departure coincide with Sexton’s rise, but it brought Exum, who was used in the Harden blockbuster — the salary needed to match Prince. The trade exception allowed the Cavs to absorb Allen’s contract.
Hood was tossed to Portland nearly two years ago in a package that included Nik Stauskas, Wade Baldwin and two future second-round picks.
Trading is a lengthy, complex game of chess. It’s not just one move, but rather a series of them that require short- and long-term thinking.
Cleveland’s rebuild plan — jumpstarted by Irving’s trade demand — has started to come into focus. Because of that one move, and a string of others that spawned from it, the Cavs now have Sexton, Nance, Drummond, Allen, Prince and more draft capital to potentially use in future deals.
Checkmate.
Irving, meanwhile, had two frustrating years in Boston and bolted on bad terms. He’s in Brooklyn now, hoping the Harden addition will allow the Nets to rise to the top of the league. Irving’s greatness can’t be argued. The Cavs honored him in the first quarter of Wednesday’s game, as Irving saluted the crowd and pointed to his ring finger — a recognition of the role this organization played in him becoming a champion.
The hatred has quelled. The Cavs have moved on. They’re in a good place, one of the NBA’s surprise teams in the first month, with a bright future and an exciting young core. There’s hope again. It wouldn’t have been possible without the Irving trade more than three years ago.
Lopsided indeed. In Cleveland’s favor.
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