Of all the highlights from Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, two, in particular, stood out for Cleveland Cavaliers fans.
The first was LeBron James' game-winning basket, a short 2-point shot off an assist from Kyrie Irving with 35 seconds remaining, which helped give Team LeBron and 148-145 victory over Team Stephen [Curry].
The other was footage from the Team LeBron bench, which captured James and Irving sharing some sort of secret with one another before breaking into hysterical laughter.
If there's any bad blood remaining between the former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates, it didn't show on Sunday -- or at any other point during All-Star Weekend. In the first year of the exhibition's new format, James drafted Irving to Team LeBron -- "If he was available, I was taking him," James said of the selection -- but their bond went beyond wearing the same colored jerseys.
Whether it was their warm locker room embrace, playful nature in public practices or the way they addressed on another in press conferences, you would have never known that Irving had requested a trade to get away from James seven months prior. According to ESPN, when Irving asked the Cavs for a trade last July, he did so in large part because he "was tired of being Robin to James' Batman."
A social media cold war of sorts followed, filled with subtweets and thinly veiled Snapchats. Prior to the season opener between the Cavs and Irving's new team, the Boston Celtics, James and Irving exchanged a mere fist bump -- although they did also share a postgame hug.
Nevertheless, no moment between James and Irving in their first three post-trade matchups this season has compared to the plethora they provided this past weekend. Long gone was James dismissively referring to Kyrie as "the kid" or Irving mocking James' homecoming on Snapchat, replaced with enough warm fuzzies to make you wonder why these two ever broke up in the first place.
"It's just normal," Irving said at an All-Star Weekend press conference of what it was like be back around James again. "I know that sounds like not a lot, but it's just normal."
"Anytime I get an opportunity to be with a fellow teammate of mine on the same court and then you add on the fact that what we was able to accomplish in the three years, it just makes it special," James said. "You automatically start thinking about the moments."
Some more of those moments were created this weekend, as we were reminded what James and Irving are capable of as teammates -- and perhaps even why it was Irving felt like he was ready to be the alpha dog of his own team.
Don't, however, expect James and Irving's bromance to remain rekindled for long. With the Celtics sitting in second place of the Eastern Conference standings and the post-trade deadline Cavs suddenly recharged, a playoff series between the two teams isn't just possible, but likely.
After All-Star Weekend, the most-talked-about NBA feud of last offseason is now over. But when it comes to two of the greatest players in Cleveland Cavaliers history, their rivalry is only just beginning.
