LeBron James, Luka Doncic send prayers to Kyrie Irving after scary knee injury

Published by

Jesse Cinquini

March 4, 2025 9:12 am

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Dallas Mavericks star guard Kyrie Irving suffered an injury while driving the ball in the first quarter of the team’s loss to the Sacramento Kings on Monday. He then shot a pair of free throws before he exited the game and didn’t return.

Unfortunately, Irving went down with quite a serious injury, as according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, he has a torn ACL in his left knee and will be sidelined for the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign.

In light of the injury update on Irving, two of his former teammates, Los Angeles Lakers stars Luka Doncic and LeBron James, sent prayers to the 32-year-old. James responded with a post on X, while Doncic responded via Instagram.

James and Irving were teammates on the Cleveland Cavaliers for several seasons and were pillars of one of the more memorable eras in franchise history. Cleveland reached three consecutive NBA Finals with the two in the fold, and they were both instrumental to the team’s title run in 2016.

Conversely, Doncic and Irving were partners in crime not that long ago. The Slovenian was a member of the Mavericks alongside Irving this season up until he was dealt to the storied Lakers franchise last month. Plus, he and Irving helped the Mavericks reach the NBA Finals a year ago, which marked just their third appearance in the championship series in franchise history.

Now that Irving’s season is over, Doncic, James and the Lakers arguably have one less team to worry about in the Western Conference in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. It’s difficult to imagine that the Mavericks have another deep playoff run in them later this year now that Doncic is a member of the Lakers and Irving is down for the count.

The Mavericks and Lakers will face off one more time before the end of the 2024-25 regular season. Doncic will have a chance to return to American Airlines Center when the Lakers square off against his former team on April 9. Doncic played against the Mavericks for the first time as a Laker late last month.

Jesse Cinquini

Jesse is a sports journalist with extensive experience covering the NBA. He has worked as a staff writer covering the Lakers’ dreaded rivals, the Boston Celtics, for SB Nation. He has also covered the New York Knicks for The Knicks Wall.