LeBron James calls reporter 'trash' over report that says he's pushing the Cavaliers to trade Kevin Love for Carmelo Anthony

pulse

February 7, 2017 4:01 PM

Although LeBron James has been vocal about the Cleveland Cavaliers front office needing to improve the roster, that apparently doesn't mean he wants them to part with Kevin Love.

null

On Monday, New York Daily News' Frank Isola reported that James is pushing the Cavaliers to trade Love to the New York Knicks for Carmelo Anthony.

The rumors between the two teams have swirled for a while. In January, ESPN reported the Cavs told the Knicks they were not interested in such a swap. ESPN later reported the Knicks were still pursuing Love in an Anthony trade.

After a 140-135 overtime win over the Wizards on Monday, James denied the Daily News report.

"It's trash," James said. "And the guy who wrote it is trash too, for writing that, especially during the game like that."

He continued, "So it's always about outside noise, and that's ju st outside noise for us. We got to focus on what needs to be done and that's to continue to compete for a championship. And we got who we got. Our GM will do a great job of figuring out if we need something else, but right now we're in a good place."

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue also denied the report, saying, "Not coming from our end. Kevin should be happy that teams want him. But he's not going anywhere."

According to the Daily News, James and Anthony, who are close friends, have discussed teaming up before, but at the time, Anthony was not ready to leave New York. However, as Anthony's situation with the Knicks has soured this season, there has been rampant trade talk around him. Anthony holds a no-trade clause, and while he has said he'd like to stay in New York, he has also said he would consider waiving it if the Knicks wanted to rebuild. In January, Yahoo reported that the Knicks had spoken to the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Clippers about trading for Anthony.

It's certainly possible that James and the Cavs do not want to part with Love, but with speculation swirling, these rumors don't seem likely to go away until the February 23 trade deadline.

pulse