The emotional leader of the Dallas Mavericks, through possibly the hardest time in franchise history, sustained a season-ending ACL tear Monday night in the game against the Sacramento Kings.
As the true hero of the story, a title which Kyrie Irving has earned through hard work, kindness and dedication to Dallas and its people, Irving was carried to the line to shoot free throws Monday before leaving for the locker room, unable to put weight on his knee.
With stoic calm, Irving stood at the line, a single tear streaming down his face, finally crumbling a little as the reality - and pain - of it all seemed to hit him.
As the Dallas Mavericks have been hit with some of the worst injury luck in history, the team and coaches have been trying to ride out the storm until more players could return. That’s an understandable approach, even a reasonable approach, but the question is whether they’ve been doing it in a sustainable way.
At some point, someone has to be the adult in the room and rest their 33 year old superstar for a game or two. If that costs a win, so be it. Because the truth is, the way the Mavs have been playing Irving recently, the way they’ve been relying on his leadership to hold everything together both on and off the court, was not sustainable.
Reality is probably also that Irving wanted to play, felt a need to keep spirits up around him and with the fans. But is it the responsibility of a superstar to make those kinds of decisions when going through the emotional turmoil Irving has been dealing with and for his team?
If your argument is that this is his job and he’s a professional - and it is a business after all, you’re missing the point. You’re missing all the intangibles in between plays and the mental aspect, and you end up viewing these guys as robots. Running a successful business is not just about production, efficiency and about worker/players sacrificing themselves for the higher good of a surplus. Running a business is about people, about optimizing their effort and making sure they feel like meaningful parts in an organization.
“This isn’t supposed to be a rest league,” Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said this week, completely ignoring the mental aspect that he himself has been a spokesperson for in the past.
Kidd also said, “He’s well conditioned, and he invited that. He wanted that. Are we reporting that? No, we’re not reporting that. We’re reporting that we’re running someone into the ground. That’s not true. That’s his job. It’s to play. He loves to play. It’s alright to play 40 minutes at the age of 32 in a month’s span. This isn’t the whole season.”
However, according to a top sports performance expert, who Grant Afseth of DallasHoopsJournal.com talked to, the situation is more nuanced than that:
“Both acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) will both play a role. You’re constantly breaking those tissues down, and they don’t have enough time to repair and regenerate. Playing that many minutes for nights on end can also negatively impact muscle strength and motor control, both of which are protective as well. As soon as that ligament goes, the body just shuts down to prevent any further damage. It’s just protective.”
The expert added, “I get/respect what Kidd is saying, but you also can’t say that high minutes don’t play a potential role in injury, either.”
The question is: Shouldn’t it be in the hands of coaches and training staff to see the big perspective and not give in to the emotions of the moment to avoid risking long term issues?
As Iztok Franko of Digginbasketball notes, Irving did everything possible to be a stabilizing force in Dallas the last few months. He led the team, and has carried the scoring load since Luka Dončić was injured on Christmas. As the numbers show, his minutes and usage increased dramatically after Christmas, and his scoring percentage went down. All signs of overuse and overwork.
Kyrie man, so sad to see. Did everything possible, to be stabilizing force, leader, voice, carried scoring load trying to save this cursed Mavericks season. Yesterday, before the game I wrote an article how much his load & role changed post Christmas. Just terrible... pic.twitter.com/0d8Q6WnEcC
— Iztok Franko (@iztok_franko) March 4, 2025
If the Mavs want to “win now” as they have been saying to justify the Luka trade, if they want a chance to do something special over the next year or two, wouldn’t it make sense to actively manage the minutes and injuries of their players?
In a valiant effort, Irving put everything out there to try to keep motivation up for his team and the fans, the scoring load, the vibes leader, the encouragement and PR tool, but the truth is that Irving should not have been the flag bearer for a franchise management’s questionable decisions to begin with.
It should not have been put on Irving’s shoulders to carry this team to the extent that he has been forced to, despite injuries, and certainly not to help alleviate the PR disaster the front office has created themselves.
There’s a reason the Mavs thrived after Irving came to Dallas. For too long before Irving arrived, Luka Dončić had to shoulder too much by himself as well, left to keep up the hopes of a fanbase and a team. Year after year, he managed to carry mediocre teams to the playoffs, a feat that eventually resulted in overuse and stress injuries - and in 2023 to burnout.
As Irving arrived in Dallas, Luka Dončić finally had a running mate and had a chance to breathe a little. Someone to share the load and responsibility with. Not just on the court but off-court especially, leading and motivating a pretty inexperienced team through both victories and adversity. Not having to try and keep up spirits in the locker room, encourage everyone, while also having to be ready to score 40+ points, set teammates up for success and mentally prepare to perform in clutch often in order to have a chance to win - it was just too much even for a prodigy superstar.
And now, once again, the Dallas Mavericks find themselves in the same position, leaving it all on the shoulders of a 33 year old, instead of a 25 year old, superstar. Except now, instead of a young dominant point guard with a size advantage, the carrier is a smaller guard who prefers to play off-ball and who has been described as injury-prone.
Sure, Anthony Davis will be back, we assume, and it will be fun when he is. But for how long? And how much can he do from the sidelines?
Kyrie was so awesome in Dallas because he was able to excel and thrive next to a high-usage/high-load player...pairing him with an injured Anthony Davis (who is at his best in a similar setup) in the middle of the season was incredibly bold bet. pic.twitter.com/XDev4n4WRK
— Iztok Franko (@iztok_franko) March 4, 2025
The regime wanted to ship off Luka Dončić to get a new look Mavs with players who fit the culture better. Instead, they managed to repeat the most prevalent issues the team suffered from before Irving arrived.
There’s only so much one person can shoulder. Luka Dončić lost the joy of the game for a while, and suffered from one stress injury after another. The Dallas Mavericks need to find a way to make long term plans, because overworking your superstars into injuries and burnout does not fit a “win now” culture in any way.
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