Last week, news broke that Cleveland Cavaliers star guard Kyrie Irving requested a trade from the team and no longer wanted to play with star forward LeBron James. One of the reported reasons was that Irving desired a leadership role the likes of Washington Wizards' guard John Wall or Portland Trail Blazers' guard Damian Lillard.

Well, Lillard joined the Sports Illustrated to talk about Irving's trade request, playing for an NBA Championship, and whether his situation is better than Irving's (as Kyrie seems to think so).

“I mean it's a lot of hard work,” said Lillard. “I'm not even sure that that's true, but who wouldn't want to go to the finals every year. I think they've been to the Finals the last three years, so I would love to do that.”

Irving didn't make the postseason in his first three years in the NBA, but has reached three straight NBA Finals since LeBron's arrival in 2014. Meanwhile, Lillard has played five seasons in the NBA, and although he's made the postseason as well as a name for himself for making clutch shots, he hasn't gotten past the second round of the playoffs. He's had to carry the Blazers on his back multiple seasons and eventually just didn't have enough to carry his team over the top.

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When asked if he would be unhappy playing alongside LeBron James, Lillard gave the politically correct answer.

“I don't know because I've never played with LeBron,” added Lillard. “But just watching from the outside, you see how easy he makes the game for everybody else. I'm not sure what it's like playing with LeBron the person but LeBron the player, I'm not sure why anybody wouldn't want to play with him.”

We'll see how Irving and the Cavs solve this trade request debacle because as of now, it seems like it's going to be hard to come back from this.