Mavericks coach Jason Kidd blasts media’s ‘wrong’ reporting of Kyrie Irving’s season-ending injury
The Dallas Mavericks suffered arguably the biggest blow they’ve had this season when tests confirmed that star guard Kyrie Irving had torn his ACL after a freak accident when he ran into Jonas Valanciunas and then came down hard on his left leg, with his knee bending back ways it’s not supposed to.
Irving had been averaging the 12th-most minutes in the NBA this season, but from January 17th (the first game Irving returned after missing two weeks with a bulging disc in his back) to March 2nd (the day before he tore his ACL), he was averaging the most minutes per game across the NBA at 38.7. That’s a heavy workload for a 32-year-old with an injury history, but it was forced to be that way after the team traded away Luka Doncic without other quality ball-handlers on the roster. And with the injuries to Anthony Davis, P.J. Washington, and more, Irving was relied upon to be the primary scorer.
The workload did not directly lead to Irving tearing his ACL on Monday night. But Irving was probably playing too many minutes for someone with his injury history. Both things can be true. But Mavericks coach Jason Kidd was not happy that people were pointing out Irving’s minutes as a reason he tore his ACL.
Kidd was asked before Dallas’ game on Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks about Irving’s workload prior to the ACL injury. And he took the time to give a long-winded response on why that narrative is incorrect. Here is almost the entire quote, edited slightly for brevity and clarity.
“The [work] load had nothing to do with the injury. We’re talking about one play, not many plays before that; he steps on Valanciunas’ foot, it’s a freak accident. That’s how it should be reported, but we’re not reporting it right. We’re reporting on conspiracy theories. We want our stars to play as many minutes [as possible]; this isn’t supposed to be a rest league. Kai’s our leader, Kai was playing minutes, but also was playing at a high level. Maybe some of the best basketball that he’s played in his career. And it’s alright to play 40 minutes. We can’t talk from both sides to say that our stars don’t play enough minutes, or guys don’t play enough, they rest. But now they’re saying that they’re playing too much. So, I think the media has taken this the wrong way. We’ve had two players in that game have injuries. Both sprained ankles, both stepped on someone’s foot. So, let’s just report it as facts, not our opinion. Did he complain about the minutes? No. Did the fans complain about the minutes? No, because they pay to come see him play. The injury is what happened. The fact of him stepping on Valanciunas’ foot was a freak accident, but it happens in sports. But we’re reporting wrong, the report is wrong. Because he played the most minutes, or he’s one of the top three. He should be one of the top three; he’s well-conditioned, and he invited that. He wanted that. But are we
reporting that? Are we? No… we’re reporting that we’re running someone into the ground. That’s not true, that’s his job, is to play. And he loves to play, and it’s alright to play 40 minutes at the age of 32 in a month’s span. This isn’t the whole season. Sometimes I think we’re taking things a little too far, or we’re not really telling the truth, because we want the likes or the hearts… Because it was a freak accident, it happened early in the game. We should be promoting our athletes and players to play more minutes and play more games. But are we? Probably not. But that’s the media’s job to make something that is not true for most people to believe. And it’s wrong. It’s bad reporting… Kai was out there to play. Unfortunately, with all the injuries, his minutes had to go up… The deeper the season gets, the games get bigger, you start to play your stars more minutes to get them ready for the playoffs.”
