CLEVELAND, Ohio — In the latest episode of Wine and Gold Talk podcast, host Ethan Sands and cleveland.com columnist Jimmy Watkins dive into one of the most fascinating parallels in Cavaliers history: the eerily similar career trajectories of Kyrie Irving and Darius Garland when faced with sharing the spotlight with a superstar teammate.
The comparison is striking in its simplicity. As Watkins explains, “It’s a similar archetype in that you’re starting with a talented guard on a rebuilding team and then you add a star next to that guard and that kind of changes the reality a little bit.”
This reality shift represents far more than just basketball adjustments — it’s a fundamental change in identity, expectations, and team dynamics that can make or break a young player’s development.
For Kyrie, the arrival of LeBron James (and Kevin Love) catapulted him from being the face of a rebuilding franchise to the second option on a championship contender.
Similarly, Garland’s world changed overnight when Donovan Mitchell arrived in Cleveland, transforming the Cavs from a play-in hopeful to Eastern Conference contender.
“They went from being applauded for making the play-in to getting skewered for winning 50 games and losing in the first round,” Watkins points out. “That’s like a real wake-up call about what being a professional athlete is.”
This sudden elevation in expectations creates a pressure cooker that forces young players to adapt quickly — both on and off the court.
What’s particularly fascinating is how this pressure affects a player’s self-perception and approach to the game.
“When you’re a young player, a young talented player on a rebuilding team, I think there’s grace involved,” Watkins explains. “Oh, we’ve hit on a draft pick. This is so exciting. Any good game that Darius Garland has, that’s enough to feed a fan base for the week.”
But that honeymoon period ends abruptly when a superstar arrives.
“When you trade for a superstar in the middle of that, it’s a whole lot more serious. And then your habits have to reflect that,” Watkins adds.
The podcast highlights how both guards have had to navigate the psychological challenge of going from “the guy” to “one of the guys.”
As Sands notes, Garland and Mitchell had to have “uncomfortable conversations, grown men conversations, for Darius to click in his mind that one, he wasn’t the number one guy anymore, and two, that Donovan was there to help him, not to hinder his success.”
What makes this conversation relevant is that while Irving eventually chose to leave Cleveland to escape LeBron’s shadow, Garland appears to be embracing his role alongside Mitchell, despite rumors to the contrary that surfaced after the Celtics series.
Watkins suggests this growth comes through discomfort: “I think discomfort breeds growth. And I think we have seen that with both of these players here.”
The podcast offers a fascinating window into how superteams are formed not just through roster moves, but through the personal and professional adjustments young stars make when suddenly asked to share the spotlight.
For Cavaliers fans watching Garland’s continued development, the hope is clearly that he’s learning from Irving’s journey — both the triumphs and the missteps.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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