Kyrie Irving suffered a significant knee injury on Monday night, and the Dallas Mavericks star has received some classy words of encouragement from a former teammate.
Irving hurt his left leg in the first quarter of Monday night’s game against the Sacramento Kings at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. He banged knees with Kings center Jonas Valanciunas and had to be helped off the court.
Tests on Tuesday revealed that Irving suffered a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. Not long after that news broke, Luka Doncic shared a photo on Instagram that showed him putting his arm around Irving when the two played together in Dallas.
“You will come back stronger mi hermano!” Doncic wrote.
Doncic and Irving spent a fairly brief time together with the Mavericks. Irving was traded to Dallas midway through the 2022-23 season. Doncic was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers in a blockbuster last month, so he and Irving played together for about two years.
Irving and Doncic have referred to one another as “hermano” — the Spanish word for brother — in the past. Irving used the term while describing how crushed he was that the Mavericks traded Doncic. The two have a close relationship, and Doncic never wanted to be traded from Dallas.
Between Doncic being traded and Irving tearing his ACL, it has truly been a disastrous season for the Mavericks. Doncic has to feel for his former teammates.
