Kyrie Irving: Dwyane Wade responds to Cleveland Cavaliers dis

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- He might be a newcomer to the city, but Dwyane Wade recently stood up for Cleveland after a slight from Kyrie Irving.

Irving, who left the city in a highly publicized trade this offseason, compared Boston to Cleveland as sports cities.

"It's exciting to be back on the East Coast," Irving told the Charlotte Observer. "It's fast-paced. A lot of different cultures, food and people. You get it all, especially in Boston. "You would go to Cleveland, and it would be at nighttime, and things would be going on, but you just see a vast difference."

"A difference, too, Irving said between Boston and Cleveland as sports cities: "Boston, I'm driving in and [thinking], 'I'm really playing in a real, live sports city?'"

The Cavaliers and Boston Celtics open the 2017 season at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Wade signed with the Cavaliers in September. He responded to the comments Friday morning, before the Cavaliers faced the Orlando Magic in a preseason bout.

"My thing has always been -- even in Miami -- first of all, you never know where you're going to be, what's going to happen, where you're going to end up, who you're going to be teammates with," Wade told ESPN.

"You just never know those things, so I never want to leave a place and talk [expletive] about a place. Because when you were there, it was great, and then you leave, it's terrible? It's just like players. Fans celebrate players when they're there, and then they leave, and it's the worst thing. That's not me. That's not how I do things. I'm appreciative of what people have done for me, what organizations have done for me, and I hope they're appreciative of whatever I can bring or whatever I've done -- on and off the court. So, it doesn't always go that way, but that's the way I try to make it when I can control it."