The Dallas Mavericks are in a rough spot following a devastating knee injury suffered by All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving on Monday night.

During the first quarter of Monday’s loss to the Sacramento Kings, Irving suffered a non-contact injury to his left knee. Further testing revealed that he’d sustained a torn ACL, ruling him out for the remainder of the 2024-25 NBA season.

When Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison elected to send Luka Doncic to the Los Angele Lakers in a blockbuster trade, he put some significant pressure on Irving to carry the offensive load.

That load became even heavier when newly-acquired center Anthony Davis suffered a left adductor strain in his Mavericks debut.

Over the last six weeks of NBA action, Irving has played more minutes per game than any other player in the league (38.7). As a 32-year-old guard with extensive injury history, some are attributing this ACL tear to overuse.

Several fans and analysts took to social media to criticize the Mavericks’ treatment of Irving over the past few weeks.

“Kyrie tearing his ACL wasn’t inevitable, but it wasn’t unimaginable either. Trading away a generational talent in his 20s for a 31-year-old with a significant injury history, then driving your 32-year-old star into the ground despite his own injury history is…extremely confusing,” Rachel Nichols wrote.

“Don’t let DAL blame their season on bad luck. That’s an excuse for decision-makers. This is on them. They traded away their main ball-handler, & didn’t replace him– putting even more burden on an aging already injury-prone Kyrie. Another fall-out from an already horrific trade,” another added.

“Jason Kidd/Nico malpractice…trading Luka is bad enough. Not finding another creator at the deadline is horrific business. These two don’t know what they’re doing,” another said.