Kyrie Irving Could Miss Most Of 2025-26 NBA Season During ACL Recovery

The Kyrie Irving injury added salt in the wounds for the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks. The team traded their superstar player and subsequently suffered a rash of injuries, which included a torn ACL for point guard Kyrie Irving, and will be fighting for their playoff lives in the upcoming Play-In tournament. The outlook for next NBA season doesn’t look great either, as Irving could miss a majority of the 2025-26 season during his recovery.

Kyrie Irving Could Miss Most Of 2025-26 NBA Season

During a game against the Sacramento Kings on March 3rd, Irving drove to the basket and crumbled to the floor after his left knee buckled. He limped to the free throw line to shoot his foul shots, which wound up being his final action of the season. He retreated to the locker room, and was diagnosed with a torn ACL.

The Mavericks, who were less than a year removed from appearing in the NBA Finals, lost whatever hope they had left for this season. They’ll participate in the Play-In tournament by facing off against the Sacramento Kings next Wednesday, but no longer have the firepower to make any kind of deep playoff push.

BREAKING: Kyrie Irving has suffered a torn ACL, per @ShamsCharania

Prayers up for Kai 💔 pic.twitter.com/p8NQSqoeac

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 4, 2025

It might carry into next season, too. The recovery time for a torn ACL varies from player to player. The process to return to full strength is said to span anywhere from 6 to 12 months, with NBA players averaging somewhere around 10 months for full recoveries. That would place a return for Kyrie Irving somewhere around January 1st, 2026, meaning that he would miss roughly the first 35 games of next season.

There is a long history of NBA players who have torn their ACLs and made full comebacks. But all of them took extended hiatuses during the rehab process. Kawhi Leonard missed the entirety of the 2021-22 season after knee surgery, as did Jamal Murray that same year. Going further back, we have cases of guys like Dejounte Murray and Demarcus Cousins missing full seasons, and Kristaps Porzingis took 16 months to heal from his ACL injury in 2018.

Irving will be entering the final season of his three-year contract in 2025-26, which is a player option worth just shy of $44 million.