Kyrie Irving requested a trade from the Cleveland Cavaliers nearly two weeks ago, going to management about no longer wanting to play alongside LeBron James.

Irving’s trade request became public knowledge, however, on Friday. And ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith cited sources close to Irving’s camp who believe LeBron himself leaked his teammate’s trade request to the media.

According to my sources, they believe LeBron James had everything to do with news getting out that Kyrie Irving wants to be traded, because Kyrie Irving and his representation and others met with the Cavaliers a couple weeks ago, and not a word got out until recently. They believe that LeBron James got word of it and was put off by it and leaked it. I’m not going to accuse LeBron of such a thing. I don’t know that to be true at all. But I know that’s what Kyrie Irving believes.

Life comes at you fast.

After making three consecutive NBA Finals appearances, including Cleveland’s lone championship in 2016, the Cavaliers are on the brink of losing their bonafide second option because ... well, he doesn’t want to be a second option anymore.

Cleveland, in all likelihood, won’t see Irving on its roster to start the season. That’s a far fall from grace for a team that was a roster move or two away from competing against the Warriors once again for another shot at an NBA championship.

How did we get here?

On July 7, while LeBron James was enjoying his vacation in Mexico, Irving met with Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. He requested to be traded because he didn’t want to be second fiddle to James any longer.

Via ESPN:

Irving was tired of being Robin to James' Batman. Tired of having another superstar -- even one of the best players of all time -- in control of his fate. Yes, he had learned from James in the three seasons they'd played together. Yes, he was appreciative. But Irving felt the time had come to take his destiny into his own hands. He wanted to be the centerpiece of a team, as he thought he was going to be three years ago, when he signed a five-year extension 11 days before James decided to come home.

The news reportedly blindsided and disappointed James, who was gearing up to make a fourth straight NBA Finals run and take on a goliath Warriors team that dispatched the Cavs in five games in June.

Irving’s trade request was kept under wraps for exactly two weeks, though. Then, in a story that literally broke the internet, Brian Windhorst reported on July 21 that Irving went to ownership and requested to be traded.

With his client in Taiwan on tour promoting sneakers, Irving’s agent, Jeff Wechsler, entered damage control mode. The news didn’t come from his end; that’s not the way he operates.

Just spoke with Kyrie Irving’s agent, Jeff Wechsler: “what I can tell you is we had a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and we sat down (1/2) — David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 21, 2017

& discussed Kyrie’s future w/the team & all the scenarios. The contents of that meeting we’re going to keep between the team and us.” (2/2) — David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 21, 2017

But as intricate details of the conversation surfaced — Irving’s preferred destinations and the nuances of his reasoning for wanting out — it became clear someone on the inside wanted this information to be public.

Does it make sense for LeBron to have leaked the news?

On its surface, maybe. After all, it wasn’t vaunted news-breaker Adrian Wojnarowski who got the scoop. It was Windhorst, a guy who’s covered LeBron his entire career, who’s from the same town and went to the same high school in Akron, Ohio.

Irving was potentially only a few days away from a smooth-sailing exodus from Cleveland. That all went out the window while he was on the other side of the planet. Leaking the news could also potentially hurt Irving’s trade value, as now it’s widely known he doesn’t want to be in Cleveland anymore.

The truth in the matter, though, is that this is all speculation and mere conjecture. We’ll never know if LeBron leaked Irving’s trade request or if the news came from elsewhere.

The only thing we know for sure is that Kyrie Irving wants out. And as a result, things in Cleveland will never be the same when the trade becomes official.