Yesterday, ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported that LeBron James and Kyrie Irving "exchanged words" after a blowout loss to the Blazers on Tuesday. After today's shootaround, LeBron told reporters that no such discussion occurred.
"Those reports are untrue," James said Friday morning following shootaround in advance of the Cavs' game against the Denver Nuggets. "We have not had a verbal exchange. But I understand that negativity sells and no one wants to hear a good story. Those reports are not true. They're very false."
This is a strange denial, since there's really nothing about Windhorst's original report that LeBron should feel the need to distance himself from. The alleged discussion was described as "healthy" in the report, which read like an example of James acting like a veteran leader and offering some wisdom to a younger player. And if James really hasn't lectured Irving about his play yet, that's something he should probably consider doing:
[ESPN]