On Friday, Cleveland suspended C Andrew Bynum (above, right) indefinitely for “conduct detrimental to the team”, though a similar punishment could well be levied upon GM Chris Grant (above, left) , who signed Bynum to a two year, $24 million pact last summer. The Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s Mary Schmitt-Boyer alludes to “a pattern of behavior from Bynum and whether (Bynum) was fully committed to basketball”, along with digging up a quote from earlier this season in which the former Laker/Sixer hints his knee troubles have him contemplating retirement (“My knees are my knees. They’re not going to get better, they are what they are. That’s really it. … I feel like I can still be a double-double guy in this league, but it’s just going to take some modifications to my game and whether or not I want to accept the challenge and do that,”). Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski claims the Cavaliers, “have no intention of Bynum ever playing another game for them,” though it seems the feeling’s mutual.
“He doesn’t want to play basketball anymore,” a league source told Yahoo Sports.
The Cavaliers believe Bynum has been a “disruptive” presence within the team and have lost hope the partnership can be salvaged, sources said. Bynum often expressed a lack of desire to play and practice and was convinced by the Cavaliers not to quit previously, sources said.
Other teams that met with Bynum during his free agency last offseason were concerned about his desire to play and commitment to continue the rehab needed for him to play in the NBA after repeated knee problems, sources said.