DALLAS — Less than two hours before the Dallas Mavericks’ home opener, coach Dusty May delivered some bad news: Kyrie Irving wasn’t going to play.
Irving was officially ruled out with what the Mavericks called left knee injury management.
That development, though not terribly surprising, was still a disappointment for fans who purchased tickets to the team’s Saturday night game against the San Antonio Spurs hoping to watch Irving play at American Airlines Center for the first time in more than a year and a half.
Without Irving and his co-star Cooper Flagg, who suffered a left shoulder strain Friday, the Mavericks put up an admirable fight against the Spurs but were overwhelmed by the defending Western Conference champions in the fourth quarter in a 122-106 loss that dropped Dallas to 1-2.
Tommy Lo was one of the 19,555 fans in attendance. Lo, 28, caught a 14-hour flight from Taiwan earlier in the week, specifically so he could watch Irving play. Lo held up a sign afterward lamenting that his trek to Texas hadn’t turned out the way he wanted it to.
“Flew 10,000 mi(les) from Taiwan just for Kyrie,” it read.
“Sad, sad, sad,” Lo said through a friend who was interpreting for him. “But Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) shows up. So that’s a payoff.”
Tommy Lo caught a 14-hour flight from Taiwan earlier in the week, specifically so he could watch Kyrie Irving play Saturday.Christian Clark / The Athletic
Excluding the preseason, Irving hadn’t suited up in a Mavericks home game since March 3, 2025. That was the night Irving suffered a torn left ACL.
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