Kyrie Irving reminds NBA that their blatant disrespect has gone way too far

With just a little under a week before the NBA's trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks have been rumored to be one of the most active teams on the market. After battling injury after injury over the last two months, Dallas' championship hopes have diminished with each injury to key players. With this in mind, the Mavericks must address multiple needs at the deadline.

While Dallas' championship hopes could wane on them making a trade and getting Luka Doncic back and healthy before the All-Star break, the team has seen positive progression with multiple players over this tough stretch. Klay Thompson has been one of the Mavericks' steadiest players over the last week and could finally be hitting his stride at the perfect time.

In addition to Thompson's pristine offense over the last week, Kyrie Irving has quietly been Dallas' best player since the beginning of the season. Irving isn't just averaging Mavericks highs in multiple categories but he largely kept the team afloat amidst this injury-riddled slide.

Irving's contributions haven't gone unnoticed and in 10 games without Irving, Dallas is just 3-7. With this in mind, Mavs fans have been clamoring for the former champion to make his first All-Star Game (as a Maverick considering he made it as a Net in 2023) since being traded to Dallas two seasons ago.

Kyrie Irving proves league wrong after All-Star snub

On the season, Irving is averaging 24.3 points per game, 4.8 assists per game, and 4.6 rebounds per game, all while shooting the ball at a nearly 50 percent rate from the field and 41.5 percent from behind the 3-point line.

Despite these eye-popping numbers, Irving was snubbed of his ninth all-star appearance in what has become one of the league's biggest talking points over the last few days. While Irving's disrespect from the league may sound like something new, this has been a common trend throughout the superstar's career.

This season, Irving's lack of whistles from the referees has been apparent and it has even caused the Mavericks to lose some games but putting all of this behind him, Irving had a strong performance against the Detroit Pistons in his first game back since not being selected for the All-Star team.

In the midst of a five-game road trip, Dallas played the Pistons in what could mark one of Dallas' low points of the season after losing 117-102 in embarrassing fashion. Despite this, Irving shined as he dropped 28 points on decent numbers from the field.

Irving dazzled on the offensive end of the floor and even hit some incredible 3-point shots to keep Dallas connected at a critical time in the game. While Irving's efforts didn't result in a win, his performance sent a clear message to the league that they messed up by not giving Irving his ninth All-Star nod.

Irving was perhaps the Mavericks' only plus player in last night's loss as he was only one of two players to finish the game with more than 20 points. While Irving may not have shot the lights out, his efforts displayed just how desperate Dallas has become as they battle multiple injuries before the trade deadline.

If the Mavericks fans are to take any takeaways from this game it's that Irving deserved to be named an All-Star and the Mavericks must get Irving and Doncic help if they wish to keep their championship hopes alive this season.