Mavericks fans must confront harsh Kyrie Irving reality after critical injury news

The Dallas Mavericks' season has reached unbelievable levels of darkness over the last month, and fans have gone through tons of hurt ever since the team decided to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. This was a move that no one expected, and ever since that shocking trade went down, more things began to go wrong for the Mavericks.

From Davis going down in his first game as a Maverick along with P.J. Washington to the organization trashing Doncic's name with different leaked reports to Daniel Gafford suffering an MCL sprain and more, the team has dealt with more adversity than ever imaginable.

While Jason Kidd has gotten those on the floor to give their all during this tough time, especially Kyrie Irving, that all ended on Monday night in a game against the Sacramento Kings. As Irving was driving to the rim, he injured his left knee and went down hard. Mavs fans assumed the worst, and that's exactly what they got on Tuesday morning when news broke about what Irving's injury was ruled as.

Mavericks face uncertain future with Irving after ACL tear

Irving tore his ACL and will be out for the year according to early reports, simultaneously ending any chance that the Mavericks will make a deep playoff run. Dallas' season has taken a devastating turn that they can't come back from, and a glaring reality about Irving is beginning to enter the picture whether fans want to admit it or not.

Even though Irving has played some of the best basketball of his career in Dallas and stayed relatively healthy while doing it, ACL tears are no joke and neither is Irving's injury history. He played in an average of 46 games over the five full seasons he played in (2017-18 season until the 2021-22 season) before the 2022-23 season in which he was traded to the Mavs, and his unbelievably heavy workload that he has been dealing with recently wasn't doing him any favors either. He was playing 38.7 minutes per game over the last six weeks or so, which was more than anyone else in the league, and even Kidd expressed some concern with how much he was playing at some point during that stretch.

The Mavericks were driving Irving into the ground without even fully realizing it, and while this ACL tear wasn't something you could have predicted considering how weird of a play in which it happened on, it wasn't something that should be a major shock either.

This injury could cause Irving's career to take a turn for the worse, considering how hard it is to come back from ACL tears, and that puts Irving and the Mavs in a tough spot, especially since he turns 33 years old later this month.

Irving has chased greatness for his entire career, and while that will never change, his avenue of getting there will be much harder now. He holds himself to the highest standard, and he may never get back to the level of play that he has displayed recently again. Irving was playing at an All-NBA level this season, and him getting back to being one of the best guards in the NBA is going to be a challenge, but a doable task for him.

Irving's best days in Dallas and the NBA as a whole may be behind him, and now Nico Harrison has a decision to make this summer. Irving has a player option, and if he decides to opt out, then he is going to have tons of leverage when it comes to the contract he commands. This injury may somewhat change that, but it's clear the Mavericks need him badly.

The rest of their guard depth has been nonexistent, and losing Irving in free agency would be another blow that would be hard to come back from. The daunting truth of the Irving injury is beginning to settle in, and Mavericks fans are being forced to deal with it.