MILWAUKEE — Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd ended his press conference ahead of his team’s matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday with a strong rebuke of the notion that Kyrie Irving’s minutes load played a factor in his season-ending ACL tear.
Irving tore his ACL on Monday during the Mavericks’ loss to the Sacramento Kings. Late in the first quarter, Irving tried to split through two defenders and stepped on Jonas Valanciunas’ foot with his right foot, which caused an awkward step with his left where his knee bent backward.
Kidd called it a “freak accident” that had nothing to do with the volume of minutes Irving has been playing.
“The load didn’t have anything to do with the injury,” Kidd said. “We’re talking about one play, not any other plays before that. He steps on Valančiūnas’ 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.”
From Christmas, when Luka Doncic went down with a calf injury, until March 2, the day before Irving’s injury, the veteran guard had averaged 38.2 minutes per game, which ranked third in the league in that span. Irving had creeped even higher to 38.9 minutes a night since the trade deadline after a slew of moves, including the controversial trade of Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, and an array of injuries throughout the roster.
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Anthony Davis, whom the Mavericks got for Doncic, was hurt 31 minutes into his team debut and hasn’t played since. Dereck Lively II has been out since January with a fractured ankle, Daniel Gafford has been sidelined since mid-February with a knee sprain and the recently acquired Caleb Martin hasn’t suited up for the team yet due to a hip problem. Add in Irving’s season-ender and a few other minor issues and the Mavericks only had eight available players — the minimum required to play a game — on Wednesday night.
Kidd made it clear that Irving had welcomed the responsibility.
“Did he complain about the minutes? No,” Kidd said. “Did the fans complain about the minutes? No, because they pay to come see him play… He’s well conditioned. He invited that, he wanted that. But are we reporting that? Are we? No, we’re not reporting that. We’re reporting that we’re running someone into the ground. That’s not true. That’s his job to play and he loves to play and it’s alright to play 40 minutes at the age of 32 in a month span. This isn’t the whole season. I think sometimes we’re taking things a little bit too far or we’re not really telling the truth because we want the likes or the hearts.”
Kidd also called out what he viewed as a double standard when it comes to star players and their workload. In a response to load management complaints in recent years, the league implemented a new player participation policy ahead of the 2023-24 season. Perhaps the most notable aspect is the 65-game rule, which requires players to reach that threshold to be eligible for a number of major awards, including MVP and Defensive Player of the Year.
“We want our stars to play as many minutes — this isn’t supposed to be a rest league,” Kidd said. “Kai’s our leader, Kai was playing a lot of minutes, but he was also playing at a high level, maybe some of the best basketball that he’s played in his career. It’s alright to play 40 minutes. We can’t talk from both sides and say our stars don’t play enough minutes or guys don’t play enough, they rest, but now we’re saying that they play too much. I think the media’s taken this the wrong way.
“We all compete and do our job at a high level and people pay to see the stars play. Kai was out there to play. Unfortunately with all the injuries, his minutes had to go up.”
The Mavericks enter Wednesday in 10th place in the Western Conference at 32-30. They are still three games up on the 11th-place Phoenix Suns for the final Play-In Tournament spot in the West, but hanging on to it will be a major challenge given their health situation.
