SI:AM | Kyrie Irving’s Torn ACL Is a Worst Case Scenario for the Mavs – Sports Illustrated

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m glad to see FGCU is still Dunk City.In today’s SI:AM:😔 Kyrie hurt🏀 How to improve college hoops⚾ MLB breakoutsIt’s been a rough few weeks for Dallas Mavericks fans—and it just got worse.Kyrie Irving—the Mavs’ lone superstar left standing after Luka Doncic was traded away and Anthony Davis was injured in his first game with Dallas—had to be helped off the court on Monday night after he injured his knee in the first quarter of his team’s game against the Sacramento Kings.Irving was injured while driving to the hoop when he planted his left foot and the knee bent in the wrong direction. He immediately went crashing to the floor in pain and had to be helped to his feet by Davis and a member of the team’s training staff. He opted to stay on the court to shoot his two free throws but was unable to put any weight on his left leg and had to be carried to the line by Davis and the trainer.Irving was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game with what the team termed a knee sprain. We now know that it’s more than just a sprain. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday morning that Irving tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. Dallas took a major long term risk in trading away Doncic, a 25-year-old homegrown superstar. But in the very near term it was possible to see the team’s vision. The 31-year-old Davis will not be a better player than Doncic six or seven years from now—he may not even be an active NBA player at that point—but he’s still in his prime and capable of forming a championship-caliber duo with Irving. If Davis could stay healthy, it could work.But Davis’s injury track record has proven that’s a big if. And sure enough, he exited his first game in a Dallas uniform with an adductor strain and has not played since. That left Irving to shoulder the load and lead an unspectacular supporting cast in a push for a playoff spot. It went mostly fine. The Mavs are 6–6 since the Doncic trade, and Irving entered Monday’s game averaging 28.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game since the deal. Dallas is 32–30 on the season, good for 10th in the Western Conference but just 1.5 games behind sixth place and a guaranteed spot in the first round of the playoffs. With Davis nearing a return, things were starting to look up for the Mavs. And then came Irving’s injury.A torn ACL is a worst-case scenario for Irving and the Mavericks. The injury occurring this late in the season means he’ll be sidelined for the majority of next season as well. A 2021 study in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine found that NBA players who tear their ACL return to the court after an average of 372.5 days. It isn’t out of the question that Irving, a soon-to-be 33-year-old who previously fractured the patella in the same knee, could miss all of next season. Given Davis’s own lengthy injury history, who knows when we’ll see him able to pair with Irving?Irving wasn’t even the only Maverick to go down with an injury on Monday night, either. Backup guard Jaden Hardy also suffered an ankle injury. “It seems every time we get close to getting somebody back, someone goes down,” Mavs coach Jason Kidd said after the game. “Tonight, both Hardy and [Irving] go down. So, we’re running out of bodies here.”The Mavs’ season has already been incredibly sad, and now it’s somehow gotten worse. The Doncic trade invited media ridicule and sparked a massive fan revolt. There were protests outside the arena. Fans were kicked out of a game for calling for general manager Nico Harrison to be fired. Davis’s injury confirmed every critic’s worst fear about the trade and made losing Doncic sting even worse. Now Irving is hurt, too, and the Mavs are staring down the prospect of being led by Spencer Dinwiddie and the husk of Klay Thompson for an indeterminate amount of time. This is a team that went to the NBA Finals last year! And on top of all that, the team has announced that it plans to raise ticket prices. Can you blame fans for leaving in droves during the third quarter of Monday’s blowout loss?… things I saw last night:5. Will Cuylle’s goal off his helmet.4. FGCU forward Keeshawn Kellman’s thunderous dunk.3. LaMelo Ball’s step-back three with two defenders in his face.2. Caris LeVert’s layup at the buzzer to give the Hawks the win over the Grizzlies. It was the third game in a row that Memphis lost at home on a shot in the final seconds.1. Lizbeth Ovalle’s outrageous goal for Tigres UANL. It’s an instant favorite for FIFA’s Puskas Award for best goal of the year.Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5). Follow Dan_Gartland© 2025 ABG-SI LLC. – SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. – All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators’ opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.

Source: https://www.si.com/nba/kyrie-irving-torn-acl-mavericks-injury-problems