Injuries are bad. When it’s your knee, it’s worse. But an ACL tear? That’s often considered career-altering, as countless athletes across different sports have learned over the years. So when Kyrie Irving went down with the same injury earlier this year, many feared it could spell doom for his career, especially at 33 years old. One question lingered above all. Is this the end of the Kyrie who made basketball so fun?
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Not having (read: able) to take part in training sessions, Irving has been dabbling in the world of Twitch streaming for a while now. There, he has gotten brutally honest about his injury with the chat and has shared some heartfelt moments, including criticizing those making a mockery of New York Knicks star Karl-Anthony Towns.
Irving’s latest stream was no different, as he got candid about how the ACL tear has affected him on both a professional and personal level. Of course, it was a blow. It cut the Dallas Mavericks’ season short and set him up for a grueling road to recovery. Kyrie, however, is thinking about how he can play basketball longer than he previously thought he would.
Most people would have thought Kyrie would be frustrated with the injury coming so late in his career. But he’s been surprisingly positive about it all. “Feel like I’ve added a few years on my career to be honest with you,” he said to his viewers.
“I definitely feel like this break has been wonderful for me. I was definitely, definitely putting in so much work over these last few years. It’s the longest I’ve had a chance to be able to take a moment, enjoy the successes that have come over the past few years.”
Everything always works out pic.twitter.com/isRV0p10eb
— Ky (@kyriegotgame) September 1, 2025
Kyrie has always been one to keep it real with everyone, and he admitted that the past few years have seen him encounter plenty of failures, too. He believes this break will help him come to terms with those, too.
“Reflect on some of the failures that have helped me grow, and the lessons that came from them. And then not take, at times, myself too serious, or be too hypercritical,” he continued.
The former Cleveland Cavaliers guard has dealt with a lot of pressure over his career: from being a No. 1 pick to being LeBron James‘ running mate to leading a team on his own. As he grew and matured, he admitted that he made a lot of mistakes and made sure to learn from them as time went on. Well, there’s no better time than the present for him, and luckily, he has a lot of it with his injury recovery.
