As much as I love to joke about IT, he really wasn't the bad guy.
Lettuce review the timeline here:
1) Lebron tried to trade the guy who won him his first ring in Cleveland (Kyrie) RIGHT AFTER HE WON THE CHIP, LITERALLY DAYS LATER.

2) Lebron then goes on to spend a year talking about how much he loves his teammates, playing team ball, seeing himself as a mentor to Kyrie and "the young guys" etc.
3) The Cavs lose to the GSW in humiliating fashion in 5 games

, featuring Lebron patented 4th quarter stat-padding and responsibility-shirking moves like passing to Kyle Korver with a minute left in a game rather than driving to the rim against a clearly exhausted and beat defender


and several back-to-back uncontested layups against 19 year olds and geriatric ward residents coming off the bench for the first time since the preseason in a 4th quarter blowout

4) Of course, Lebron can't help himself, he says publicly that he "left everything on the floor" and "got a triple-double the entire series", thereby refusing to take any ownership of the loss and shifting blame to his teammates



5) Then he re-enters LeGM mode, and tries to set up a trade for Eric Bledsoe and Paul George by dropping Kyrie into NBA Siberia, not recognizing the fact that the Pacers were never going to agree to trade Paul George in their own conference, let alone their own DIVISION


6) This time, Lebron gets sloppy with his skullduggery (old age catching up maybe?


), and the news makes its way back to Kyrie. Kyrie is completely stunned at the betrayal of his so-called "big bro", and demands a trade to a team he feels is a good fit for his future. He feels he's owed at least that much for bringing a chip to the Cavs.
7) Lebron and his PR team go into turbo damage control mode, immediately spinning stories of the original trade "really being Dan Gilbert's idea"



and then trying to throw dirt on Kyrie's name in the public eye with rumors of his "hardheadedness" and "lack of team spirit"


8) Kyrie sits back and watches Lebron dig an even deeper hole for himself with these antics, and then rather than talking, just posts videos of him on his jet chillin
9) Lebron attempts some sort of reconciliation meeting to "work out their differences"...as though he wasn't the one who started this in the first place

10) Kyrie is flabbergasted - does Lebron really think there's any coming back from backstabbing him like this? He reiterates his demand for a trade, this time to Boston, and threatens to sit out the season with a (somewhat needed) arthroscopic surgery to his knee if his wishes aren't granted.


11) Dan Gilbert is in a panic, goes to Lebron with the Boston offer (it's too late for PG), tells him they need Lebron's blessing to move forward

12) Lebron says OK, IT is just Kyrie with a little less height (





) and considers the BKLYN pick an asset to move with K Love at the trade deadline to get him Boogie Cousins or another similar big


13) IT turns out to be pretty crippled. Lebron is now in a panic, WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE WON'T PLAY UNTIL CHRISTMAS???

14) IT starts playing, and realizes extremely quickly just how dysfunctional Bron Ball and Lebron teams are in general. Starts mouthing off to the media with little asides about how the Cavs don't practice enough, the ball doesn't move enough, they're poorly coached (because Lebron refuses to play in any sort of rational system drawn up by a grade A coach) etc.


Jae Crowder doesn't say anything, but is clearly disgusted with Bron as well.
15) With the trade deadline approaching and an awful record since Christmas, Lebron looks to evade responsibility for the failed trade caused ultimately by his own sloppiness in trying to stab Kyrie in the back. Searching for any storyline to help him escape blame, his team pulls out the "Kyrie Knee Injury" refusal to play story in a last-ditch attempt to show that it was Kyrie's hardball tactics that resulted in such a bad deal.


16) Somehow, tales of IT's locker room meeting (now confirmed to have actually been called by Dwayne Wade) make their way simultaneously to every major sports media outlet


17) That's it! It's all IT's fault!


Lebron finds his scapegoat, and the negative stories on IT keep coming night after night - with just enough little nuggets of extra detail every night to keep everyone tuned in and their attention off of Lebron. Meanwhile, we all know IT was always a 5 foot 9 ball-dominant POINT GUARD, only now he's crippled, and Lebron successfully evades responsibility for his terrible decision-making.


18) "The Trade" goes down - but Dan Gilbert being the clever operator he is, realizes that Bron has lost some juice PR-wise - people are starting to doubt his innocence - and keeps the BKLYN pick to use should Bron decide to take his talents elsewhere.

19) IT, as a result of telling even a little truth about the nature of Bron's team, coupled with that hip injury, may end up playing in China next year.

The end.