With the Dallas Mavericks going through media day on Friday, star Kyrie Irving would give an update on where he's at regarding the recovery after tering his ACL in March of 2025, leading to him missing the entirety of last season. As Irving continues his injury recovery with the Mavericks, he would give insight into the reflection period that came with his process.

Having torn his ACL on March 3, 2025, it's nearing 600 days since Irving has played in an NBA game, as it no doubt leaves a lot of time to think about one's approach to the game. Irving would even say Friday that his injury “was probably the best thing that happened to me.”

“Being away from the game of basketball…just my injury was probably the best thing that happened to me,” Irving said. “I was obsessively looking at the craft of basketball and playing a majority of minutes, and I probably would be honest about a year ago, too, about how I was feeling physically, but it was a lot of weight on my shoulders, and it's no blame to go around. Pure accountability of just where we wanted to be as a team, but I think we fell short of our goal.”

"My injury was probably the best thing to happen to me."

Kyrie Irving spoke at media day 🙌 pic.twitter.com/t3GSS42maD

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 25, 2026

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Mavericks' Kyrie Irving on where he wants to improve

Irving now enters a different Mavericks team, now with Dusty May as the head coach rather than Jason Kidd, as the veteran point guard wants to ‘act his age' and be a “better leader.”

“Also taking the approach of acting like my age finally,” Irving said. “Being 34 years old, I'm going on year 16, been through a lot of ups and downs as a person, but I think me as a competitor out there, you never have to worry about me falling short of leaving my best foot forward out there, or putting my teammates first, or putting my coaching staff first, or the mission that we have as a franchise.”

At any rate, it remains to be seen when Irving officially returns for Dallas, as the regular-season opener is on Oct. 21 against the Houston Rockets.