When it rains it pours, and right now, there’s a Category 5 storm over Dallas.
The hits keep coming for the Dallas Mavericks.
ESPN’s Sham Charania has reported that star point guard Kyrie Irving will be out for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee on Monday night.
Irving suffered the season-ending injury in the Mavericks 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings.
The shifty guard suffered the knee injury while driving to the basket, yet was determined to shoot the two foul shots before he left the court.
Irving got up and shot the two free throws, then proceeded to leave the game, all while on a torn ACL, trying to fight back tears.
That about sums up everything that has happened in Dallas since the moment general manager Nico Harrison traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Since willingly deciding to give away one of the league’s top three players in Doncic, the Mavericks have been set on a crash course to the capital of pain and misery with no end in sight.
Doncic got traded, the key piece in return, Anthony Davis, then suffered a left adductor strain in his Mavericks debut that has kept him sidelined since, and now Irving is lost for the year.
The season from hell wouldn’t even begin to describe what Mavericks fans have been put through.
And the whole basketball world knows it.
Everyone is feeling for them.
Basketball savant Bill Simmons took to X to sympathize with Mavs fans.
“Going to those 3 2011 Finals games in Dallas was one of my favorite non-Boston basketball experiences ever,” Simmons wrote.
“The Mavericks have awesome fans who actually give a s***. Easily a top-7 NBA fan base. I’m feeling for them.”
Longtime NBA journalist Zach Lowe also chimed in.
“What are you even supposed to say about what is going on with the Mavs right now? This is an NBA apocalypse,” Lowe wrote.
He then went back and put the Doncic trade in perspective and reminded everyone just how terrible it was to begin with.
“One of the stated/implied reasons for the Luka trade was that it supposedly boosted the Mavs championship odds over this season/next,” Lowe said.
“I heartily disagreed despite Luka’s calf stuff — YOU WERE JUST IN THE FINALS! AND ’22 WCF! — and even if that were true, it doesn’t justify the trade.
“But pinning so much on a short window always risked this — making an injury wave even more devastating than it would otherwise be.”
It was a ridiculous trade at the time, and now with Irving’s injury, it’s only made so much worse.
“Just a completely stupid trade all around,” one angry fan added.
“No matter how you dissect it, you can’t justify it. That’s why these trades never happen cause it can set your franchise back for decades! You can’t even pull it off on 2k!”
There’s no telling just how much the Doncic trade will set back the Mavericks.
It’s hard to tell in real time.
But the hope was that Davis and Irving would be able to compete for a title for at least this season and the next.
You can kiss that good-bye.
As Doncic and the Lakers vault up the Western Conference standings, and the Mavericks fall out of the playoff picture, Dallas fans will have to look elsewhere to preoccupy their time.
It’s time to go inside and step out of the rain Mavs fans.
You’ve all had enough.
