Kyrie Irving instant reaction: Brutal injury is latest blow for a completely lost Mavericks franchise

The London School of Economics and Political Science is widely considered one of the best schools in the world for those who want to hone their skills in the world of high-leverage business and profit margins.

Given how the Dallas Mavericks have operated over this past month, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the university decided to use the franchise as an example of how to avoid crashing your business in 30 days.

With Kyrie Irving now missing the rest of the season because of a left ACL tear, the Mavericks are closing in on completing a season from hell — most of which has been self-inflicted.

We all know about the Luka Dončić trade by now, but it’s still stunning that a top-five player in his prime was traded to a conference rival — with that rival being the Los Angeles Lakers.

By trading Dončić, the Mavericks organization immediately damaged its relationship with the fan base, to the point that thousands of them flat-out aren’t coming back until another change in ownership. That could be decades from now, seeing as the team just changed hands in 2023.

Dallas then added insult to injury by initiating the most petty and egregious media campaign against Dončić to justify its decision.

Instead of celebrating the guy who took them to the Finals last season, and doing so while nursing three injuries, the Mavericks essentially fat-shamed the now 26-year-old, insinuating his body would break down within five years, all through the comfort of anonymous sourcing.

How brave.

They key player the Mavs got in return, Anthony Davis, will soon be 32, is not as good as Dončić and has played one game since the trade because of an adductor injury.

We could end the story there, but the Mavs weren’t quite done.

Fans, understandably upset at being blindsided by the Dončić trade, were removed from games for voicing their displeasure.

For a team so willing to leak all kinds of concerns about Dončić and steamrolling him after the fact, it sure seems to struggle accepting criticism in the other direction.

Of course, the Mavs weren’t done making awful trades.

They moved Quentin Grimes, a player clearly trending in the right direction, to Philadelphia for Caleb Martin, a player clearly trending in the opposite direction.

Grimes, as expected, is flourishing. He’s averaging 16.5 points and 5.5 rebounds and has already had a 44-point game.

Martin? He’s yet to play a single minute for Dallas due to a hip injury, which is one of those things that can linger quite awhile and potentially affect a player for the remainder of his career.

At this point, the Mavericks should probably try to make amends with their fan base.

Instead, Dallas decided to raise ticket prices.

Of course, the Mavs do have a strong argument to justify the costlier tickets. Watching elite incompetence such as this is truly and genuinely unique. It’s bordering on elite performance art, so, of course, fans must pay for the privilege of seeing such an efficient destruction of a contender.

In all seriousness, the Mavericks have been almost unrealistically quick in crumbling their own house of cards, which former ownership spent decades building.

As for Dallas’ immediate future, things look horrifyingly bleak. Irving has a player option worth just under $44 million for next season, which he’ll probably pick up due to the injury, and then he likely won’t play for about 60-70 games — if at all.

The Mavericks don’t have a ton of long-term money locked up quite yet, but they are on the hook for Davis up until the 2028 summer, when you have to wonder if the big man will be as effective.

With no other contract cracking $20 million per year, Dallas does have deals that can be moved and somewhat easily, but that misses a larger issue.

Given how the Mavs spent three weeks throwing Dončić under the bus, how will that play among NBA players at large?

Will Dallas even be in a position to lure free agents down the line, or will the bigger names forego the organization in light of how Dončić was treated?

Consequences will come for these Mavericks, and more than likely it will come in the form of agents directing star players elsewhere, meaning their cap situation — while manageable moving forward — is almost a pointless advantage.

Sure, they can trade players into future cap space, but will the end result differ?

This all leads to the overarching question of … why?

There doesn’t seem to be a singular answer, nor does there seem to be any coherent logic attached to the majority of Dallas’ decisions.

If this was solely general manager Nico Harrison rolling the dice in the hope of a championship this season, then at least there’s some string of a plan that you can maybe, sorta see if you squint so hard your eyelids fuse together.

But even so, any plan that required Dončić and Grimes to be traded should be dead on arrival, and the fact that ownership signed off on these decisions is even more egregious.

Irving getting injured is outside of the franchise’s control, at least from a transactional perspective.

But playing the almost 33-year-old over 39 minutes per game over the past 12 contests because trade-deadline acquisitions weren’t available certainly didn’t help matters.

Poor decisions, even worse judgment and brutal injury luck have doomed the Mavericks this season. And it’s hard to see things improving in the future.