The news of Kyrie Irving’s ACL injury sent shock waves around the league, and apparently sits as another shot across the bow to Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison as another ripple from trading Luka Dončić a month ago.
It’s easy to frame this as cosmic or karmic to the Mavericks organization, as if Irving was some mere tool in the quest to make Harrison look like an incompetent fool for trading Dončić. But then you’d be selling Irving short, stripping him of the very humanity he has long claimed the media does on every possible occasion.
When Irving took a bad step down the lane of Monday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings, it looked bad and felt worse upon replay. Still, he took his free throws before being helped to the locker room by another injured teammate, Anthony Davis.
Those two have become unwitting weapons in the case of the People v. Harrison, apparently, since Davis suffered an injury in his Mavericks debut and now Irving will be out for an extended period of time, with surgery and a long rehabilitation process ahead.
To call this anything other than bad luck seems pretty mean-spirited, considering Davis had his healthiest season as a pro last year and had missed only five games this season before being traded — on pace for another 70-plus games played season. Irving had been playing heavier minutes with a bigger load since Dončić was traded, but those minutes had increased in the time Dončić was inactive after his Christmas Day injury (37.5 MPG between Dec. 27 and Jan. 31).
Wait, this isn’t just bad luck, it’s the worst-case scenario in every situation, as if the Mavs had snake eyes on every roll.
The focus here should be on Irving himself, one of the league’s most spellbinding figures, if not the biggest enigma from the last few seasons. He is as entertaining an athlete as the league has at his size, and doesn’t sacrifice creativity for efficiency — he was still shooting over 40 percent from 3, 50 percent from 2 and 90 percent from the free-throw line. The Clippers’ Amir Coffey and Boston’s Sam Hauser are the only other regular rotation players with that profile and neither have the volume Irving does.
Irving made it back to the All-Star stage this season as an injury replacement, even though he should’ve been on the original list. It’s been a climb back to the consciousness of the NBA fan for Irving; for a long time, his play wasn’t the first or second thing on the top of anyone’s mind when his name was mentioned.
He was seen as a malcontent, a disruptor and plenty of other harsh things due to his views on the COVID-19 vaccine and other matters, including his sharing of a link to an antisemitic film (in which he later apologized), that upset people in Brooklyn and beyond. The very promising trio with Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden failed miserably, and Irving was a key cog to blame.
But since going to Dallas — and yes, playing with Dončić but also being rescued from Brooklyn by Harrison two years ago — Irving’s been able to focus on basketball and being the thoughtful citizen he always claimed he was.
Anyone who sat near the fans at Boston’s TD Garden during last June’s NBA Finals might’ve heard a modicum of what Irving had to endure and it should be said, he handled those moments with more grace and humanity than the average person.
Irving’s stability, shot-making and leadership were on full display as Dallas made its run. It wasn’t just Dončić who shined during the playoffs last spring. He was the undisputed leader, but hardly the only factor.
This embedded content is not available in your region.
And while Irving didn’t play his absolute best during the Finals, suffocated by Boston’s long and rangy defenders, he didn’t break or melt down. In fact, one could argue Irving’s play since coming over was a reason Harrison felt secure in making the Luka trade — not just sending Dončić away, but bringing in Davis to put him alongside Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford.
It would’ve been intriguing to see that defensive versatility, then Davis as an offensive hub and Irving as a playmaker in concert — the thought and idea for the present was compelling, even if one didn’t agree with trading Dončić.
But now, it’s all gone up in smoke, with fire sure to come next. If this is a three-year window with Irving and Davis as centerpieces, a big chunk of it is gone.
But most of all, Irving will be missed. During last year’s playoff run, he spoke about going through this process at a different speed than when he was younger, and appreciating the journey.
Irving was a calming, mature voice for a team that didn’t have much sweat equity in going through the postseason. Irving had done what we in the public claim we want athletes to do when they fall down, make mistakes or are misunderstood.
He got himself together and began to speak with clarity, he seemed to center himself with basketball and his family, and then produced some of the best ball of his life — and it was done in a winning environment.
Irving’s 33rd birthday is in less than three weeks, and he might not step foot on an NBA floor again until he’s nearly 34, or sometime after depending on how his recovery goes.
That feels devastating in itself, not being able to watch Kyrie the entertainer, Kyrie the competitor. He’s in the class of older guards who’ve pushed this game forward, along with Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard — and he authored one of the biggest shots in NBA history, the clinching 3-pointer in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.
He deftly straddled the line between franchise leader and empathetic former teammate to Dončić in the aftermath of the deal, showing how much he cares for Dončić — and the feeling was returned in Dončić’s Instagram story Monday night before Irving’s injury diagnosis was revealed.
Teammates ride for him, and that speaks to something in his basketball character.
So much of this will revolve around Nico Harrison’s decision-making, and inevitably will circle its way back to Luka Dončić.
But it’s important to remember how devastating this is for Kyrie Irving, first and foremost.
