Cleveland Cavaliers guard Dion Waiters is denying reports that he and backcourt mate Kyrie Irving got into a physical confrontation during a closed doors, player's only meeting last week that ended with Irving sporting a black eye and broken nose.
After suffering their worst loss of the season on the road in Minnesota, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports captains called a players only meeting that quickly turned testy and reportedly ended with Irving and Waiters squaring off against one another.
Rumors of the brawl first surfaced over the weekend and picked up even more steam when Irving reported for Friday's game nursing his new and largely unexplained injuries. Waiters, meanwhile, was not with the team for either Friday's home game against Charlotte or Saturday's road battle in Washington.
Irving was hit in the nose by the Timberwolves Corey Brewer in the first quarter of the Minnesota game but returned to action without any discernable injuries. The official reason the team gave for Waiter's absence was "flu-like symptoms."
"We men,'' Waiters told The Plain Dealer on Monday in denying the reports. "Nobody got into no altercations or anything like that. We got everything off our chests that we needed to. That's that. All the other rumors, man, are rumors. Don't believe it. It's not true. We talked. Everybody talked. Nobody put their hands on nobody. At the end of the day, we're teammates. Like I said, I'd rather fight somebody else on the other team than one of my teammates. That's the way it is. That's the way I was brought up. I feel as though we say we're family, then we're a family and I'm going to look out for you to the best of my abilities. All the other stuff is foolishness.''
Cavs coach Mike Brown said he expected Waiters to be back in uniform for Cleveland for Wednesday's game against Washington, but added he was unsure what his starting lineup might be.
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