Can Kyrie Irving return to form for the Mavericks after torn ACL?

Remember last year? When the sunshine pumpers swore up and down that Kyrie Irving would be back on the court for the Dallas Mavericks by the New Year? Well, as it turns out, it was always going to be closer to March, which would have given the 33-year-old at the time the standard full-year recovery window after he tore his left ACL on March 3, 2025, in a game against the Sacramento Kings. But then, much to the compounding chagrin of an already scorned fanbase, when March rolled around, the Mavericks were in such rough shape that it made no sense to risk any sort of re-aggravation of Irving’s knee.

So, 2025-26 was a maddening punt. Irving had no age-33 season at all, and the Mavericks slogged through a 26-56 disaster in Cooper Flagg’s rookie campaign. The team couldn’t even lose enough to net another top-five draft pick for its considerable trouble.

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But here we are. We’ve come out the other side, sans Nico Harrison, sans Jason Kidd, sans Anthony Davis — with a young roster surrounding a healthy Irving, now 34, who’s been itching to get back to work. He said during the team’s media day on Sept. 26 that he’s moving, working out and playing with no restriction of movement.

“I’m ready to go out there and kick some butt,” Irving said during his media day press conference, the first time that he has addressed reporters since crumpling to the ground with his latest knee injury. “I know that naysayers or some of the questions around where I’m going to be are going to be inevitable. But for me, I have the confidence of a champion. … This is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately type of league, and everybody wants to see it up close. So I’m looking forward to being able to lace up my shoes and being on the court with my teammates and show everybody what I’ve got again. It’s just like riding a bike.”

Each new workout video this offseason has gifted Mavs fans with one more talking point — one more piece of leading testimony toward our own confirmation bias. Because we all — even those of us who try to remain measured in our expectations — want to see Irving torch young whipper-snappers the league over for…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/kyrie-irving-return-form-mavericks-100500762.html

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Publish date : 2026-10-07 10:05:00

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