One of the more unfortunate incidents from last year’s NBA season was top superstar Kyrie Irving tearing his ACL in a game against the Kings. The incident effectively ended the Dallas Mavericks‘ chances of making the playoffs, especially because Anthony Davis was already battling his own injury issues. Now, Kyrie is breaking down exactly what happened.
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The nine-time All-Star relived his horrific tear during his latest Twitch stream. He began by breaking down the path toward the rim he saw, which included having to go through the Kings’ center, Jonas Valanciunas.
“I’m going through. I see Jonas Valanciunas. I see an angle right here. Bro, I tried to go through, tried to split them,” said the 33-year-old NBA Champion. It seemed like a normal move for Kyrie, but this is where he hit an unexpected snag.
Kyrie Irving breaks down the play that he tore his ACL
(Via @KyrieIrving/Twitch) pic.twitter.com/fDjjYBwcVi
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 11, 2025
“When I tried to split, I stepped on Jonas’s foot and that took me elevated from the ground so when I tried the plant here, it hyper-extended, and then I threw the ball up and that’s when I was on the ground and I felt it,” he added.
It wasn’t just Kyrie. The entire city of Dallas felt his ACL tear, as it added to the other bad luck of trading Luka Doncic and losing Davis in his first game as a Maverick. The 2024-2025 season was just not the year for the Mavs.
The good news is that Kyrie is focused on getting healthy. The bad news? He isn’t certain he’ll be back next year, even if Dallas makes it to the postseason.
“Don’t hold your breath on that,” he said during a separate Twitch stream. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t be back. It’s just, I don’t want to make any predictions on when I’m going to be back. I just want to be back 150,000% better.”
Honestly, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear a player have realistic expectations like that. So often, guys are so eager to get back that they put themselves at further risk of being shelved again. “I’m taking my time right now to really get healthy,” he added. “I’m taking my time to really get my body right, other portions of my body right, and really just enjoy this recovery process.”
Irving isn’t the only top star missing next year. Also sidelined are Tyrese Haliburton, Damian Lillard, and Jayson Tatum, who all went down at some point during the postseason. It’s a big hit for the NBA, as all four men are considered major talents not just for their team, but for the league.
But what that does is leave an opening for new guys to step up. And even if they don’t, Kyrie will be coming back with a vengeance, and that spells bad news for defenses across the NBA.
