MACAO — Kyrie Irving said Thursday that he wants to hear Dallas Mavericks fans yell and scream again when he gets back home, thanking them for their patience through 19 months away from the floor.
Irving last played March 3, 2025, the night he tore his left ACL. He missed all of 2025-26 as Dallas went 26-56.
The Mavericks open the NBA China Games 2026 against the Houston Rockets on Friday at The Venetian Arena, and the teams play again Sunday. Mavericks coach Dusty May said Thursday that Irving will play in one of the two games, with the team still deciding which one.
Kyrie Irving On Why The ACL Tear Was The Best Thing For Him
Irving has called the ACL tear the best thing that happened to him. On Thursday, he said the time away let him heal parts of his body he had not been paying attention to.
“Just from a manhood standpoint, I think that’s why I said it. It was the best thing for me because I was able to reclaim my time, reclaim my power to a certain degree as a man and show up for my family in ways that I hadn’t been able to show up for many years,” Irving said. “I obsessively love basketball, but I needed a healthy balance to be able to recharge, reset. And it was great to be able to have the break and heal other portions of my body that I probably wasn’t paying attention to.”
“So I’m just grateful for the time. Obviously, I don’t want to miss that much time ever again,” Irving added. “But injuries happen and how you respond to it shows who you are as a person. And I feel like I handled it great, but I didn’t do it alone. I had a lot of help along the way. So I really want to give a shout-out to my support system, my teammates, and everyone else that was along the journey for me because there were some rocky points in there, a lot of obstacles that I had to face. But that’s what life is about, man, getting through those things.”
The rocky points included a grade 2 calf strain in December that cost Irving about eight weeks and pushed his timeline back further.
Irving’s Message To Mavericks Fans
Irving is a nine-time All-Star who won the 2016 championship with Cleveland, and Dallas acquired him in a February 2023 trade. The Mavericks return home after Sunday’s game for preseason games Oct. 14 and Oct. 16, and Irving is treating those nights as a chance to get his feet wet in front of the home crowd.
“I want to give a huge shout-out to my MFFLs because we’ve been very patient, and they’ve been very patient with me,” Irving explained. “And just looking forward to getting back home and playing a few games in front of them and just getting my feet wet to a certain degree of just having that crowd pop again. It’s nothing like being back in Dallas, being in American Airlines and looking eye to eye with some fans that have been rocking with you for the past few years.”
“So I’m looking forward to the opportunity, but it’s going to be a process and I’m not taking any of these moments for granted,” Irving continued. “I want to hear them yell. I want to hear them scream our names when I hear them kind of get excited again about what Dallas Mavericks basketball is all about.”
Irving is 34 and was cleared for the trip with no restrictions. The regular season opens Oct. 21 at Houston.
