The defining, tragic moment of the Dallas Mavericks’ season after trading away Luka Doncic will probably be Anthony Davis, in street clothes, aiding a hobbling, injured Kyrie Irving off to the locker room.
Irving went from NBA pariah to the symbol of all that’s great and exciting in the NBA, only to have it all come crashing down in one all-too-predictable and devastating moment. In the first quarter of the Mavericks’ Monday night loss to the Sacramento Kings, Irving diced through the defense and planted his feet, but his left leg gave way and he collapsed on the floor. He laid on the ground, face down, his right hand quivering as he reached out to his bench for help. He knew. We all knew. And the news was confirmed on Tuesday morning: Irving has suffered a season-ending torn ACL.
His story that night didn’t end with that injury, though. Irving, who visited the mural for Kobe and Gigi Bryant in Los Angeles in front of the Lakers’ Crypto.com Arena to pay homage to his hero two weeks ago, channeled Bryant by refusing to go to the locker room before nailing two free throws, tears streaming down his face and all. As he did so, the Dallas crowd chanted “MVP,” as they watched their season implode.
The outpouring of love Irving felt Monday night, and is still receiving today, feels like it would have been a fantasy a few years ago. Remember, Irving arrived in Dallas as one of the most hated men in the league. He’d torpedoed the Brooklyn Nets superteam that he helped build alongside Kevin Durant and James Harden by refusing to adhere to New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He played only about half of the possible games with the team and was mired in controversy the whole time. He racked up a multi-game suspension for tweeting a link to a movie with antisemitic messaging and refusing to apologize initially. Irving and Nike mutually parted ways, he was shipped out of Brooklyn and doubted as someone who could elevate the Mavs alongside their supposed future franchise star Doncic.
Yet Irving turned everything around. He was a wizard last season, helping lead the Mavs to a NBA Finals appearance and looking like the superstar savant he’d become known as before the off-the-court-distractions took over.
For me, though, it was this season that became his masterpiece. He quickly emerged as the Mavs’ emotional leader. He started the offseason by inviting the team to his L.A. home. He immediately gelled with Doncic again. And when the franchise star went out with a calf injury, it was Irving who picked up the slack.
Then the unthinkable happened. In the dead of night, the Mavericks traded Doncic away to the Lakers. Mavs general manager Nico Harrison cited long-term injury concerns as a reason for moving on from Doncic. The major piece the Mavs received in return was Davis, a generational talent in his own right, but one with his own history of injuries.
When Dallas fans, justified in their anger over the trade, nearly revolted during the team’s first game post-trade, it was Irving who stood tall. He did the same after Davis got hurt in his first game with the team. Four days later, in the Feb. 12 home game against the Warriors, Irving scored 42 points and gutted out a win. He waited after the game to sign autographs for fans and remind them they had something to cheer for.
But Irving was racing against time, and his own body. The Mavericks, inexplicably, have run Irving into the ground since the Doncic trade. He averaged 39 minutes a game since the trade, the most in the league in that timespan. It’s an absurd amount of use for a 32-year-old with his own extensive injury history. Irving was giving it all on the court as his team was falling apart.
Davis was just one of a long list of injured Mavs — centers Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford among them. Irving had endeared himself not just to Mavs fans, but the rest of the league who saw his effort and determination to pull the franchise from a once-in-a-lifetime decision that could doom the entire team for years to come.
And now Irving’s season is over.
His future is in question as he enters an offseason where he can either opt into Dallas for a year or try his hand at a lucrative multiyear deal, all while working his way back from a career-altering injury. This isn’t the way the story should have gone. If not for a series of dumbfounding decisions from the Mavericks franchise, Irving would be spending this month getting ready for a deep playoff run with one of the best five players in the league in Doncic.
Irving deserved better. Regardless of the ending and what this all means for the Mavericks, Irving’s yearslong climb back to his spot as a respected, beloved and awe-inspiring phenom is one of the greatest accomplishments of his career.
As he copes with the injury and what this means, I hope he’ll always remember that moment when an arena full of heartbroken fans thanked him and paid their respects for all he’s given to the game.