The Dallas Mavericks received brutal news when it was announced that Kyrie Irving tore his ACL against the Sacramento Kings on March 3rd after he stepped on Jonas Valanciunas' foot and landed awkwardly on his left leg, causing his knee to hyperextend. He'd stay in the game to shoot the free throws but was helped to the locker room by Anthony Davis, and that would be the last time we'd see him on the court in the 2024-25 season.
In the days after the injury, numbers started surfacing that no one had played more minutes recently than Kyrie Irving, which is true. Since he returned from a bulging disc in his back on January 17th, no one in the NBA had been playing more than Kyrie Irving's 38.7 MPG. Even if the accident occurred in a freak play, playing a 32-year-old with an injury history that many minutes likely isn't the best idea.
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Jason Kidd challenged the notion that the workload led to Irving's injury with a long pre-game rant before Wednesday's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, and it seems that Kyrie Irving is doing the same with a post on his Instagram story.
Kyrie posted this on his Instagram story:
βToo many minutes??? Or did I get knocked off balance?β π pic.twitter.com/QXN8O1lduM
β Kyrie Center (@kyriecenterig) March 8, 2025
Two things can be true: Irving's injury was a freak play that wasn't caused by too many minutes, but he was also playing too much. That's what happens when you trade away a generational ball-handler like Luka Doncic, leaving Coach Kidd with Jaden Hardy and Spencer Dinwiddie as the other playmakers on the roster. Those two aren't good enough to contend on a nightly basis, so the Mavs had no choice but to play Irving more than normal, and Irving accepted that challenge.
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