When Kyrie Irving decided to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Boston Celtics, it stuck a great controversy due to the fact that he didn’t talk to his teammate Lebron James about his decision. Lebron James is known as one of the best basketball players of all time and is basically the head of the Cleveland team. In multiple interviews, Irving said that it “wasn’t anything personal” and said he didn’t have to talk to Lebron about it. In a recent article, Kyrie Irving explains how playing with other unbelievably talented players has increased his growth process in the NBA, and that he is simply ready to move on.
There are two psychological concepts that tie into this situation and they are self concept and individualism. Self concept is a belief or concept about oneself and Individualism is the way people identify themselves. Irving wanting to move on to another team is an example of individualism because he identifies himself as a good player and is focused on how well he is playing and what he can do. Self concept ties into this situation because Irving believes that he is better than he was when he first started and is now ready to leave and be better for another team.
In a statement made by Kevin Durant of the, Golden States Warriors, to yahoo sports he said:
“It’s just a regular NBA problem, right? A lot of teams have gone through this before,” Durant told ESPN. “They’ll figure it out. That’s a great organization, a championship organization. They’ll figure it out.”
These situations tend to happen a lot within the NBA, which leads many to think that this is a business issue. Meanwhile others say that it is a personal issue.
References
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20745983/nba-kyrie-irving-explains-trade-request-mo
https://sports.yahoo.com/kevin-durant-kyrie-irving-lebron-181540667.html
Genesis Carpio
This was a very interesting blog to read. In professional sports, there is a lot of controversies when players switch teams especially when you have been working with one team for so long to win championships. The issue here with Kyrie relates to the concepts we learned about in class. I believe that it was a personal choice of Kyrie to move forward and work with a team that is looking for a leader a chance to make it far in the playoffs.