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Kyrie Irving’s first year with Nets cut short due to shoulder surgery

By Kevin Connelly

Duke basketball alum Kyrie Irving (Photo by Matteo Marchi/Getty Images)
Duke basketball alum Kyrie Irving (Photo by Matteo Marchi/Getty Images) /
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Former Duke basketball star Kyrie Irving was hit with more bad news on Thursday as it was announced the superstar will have his season cut short due to shoulder surgery.

Kyrie Irving‘s first season with his hometown and childhood favorite Brooklyn Nets hasn’t gone as planned.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Thursday afternoon that the former Blue Devil would undergo season-ending shoulder surgery.

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Irving had already missed 26 games with the shoulder injury earlier in the year, and the Nets are looking at the bigger picture as this was not the year the team would compete for an NBA Championship.

Kyrie first returned from the shoulder injury on January 12 after getting a cortisone shot, but he only played nine games after that before spraining his right knee in February and was limited to just 20 games this season.

The former No. 1 overall pick signed a four-year, $142 million contract with the Nets in the offseason, joining forces with Kevin Durant and DeAndre Jordan in Brooklyn.

Durant has not played yet for the Nets as he continues to recover from an Achilles injury suffered in last season’s NBA Finals with the Golden State Warriors. The former MVP also will not play this season for the Nets.

In those 20 games, Irving was one of three players to score at least 50 points more than once this season, and he did it twice with 50 points on Opening Night against the Minnesota Timberwolves and on January 31 against the Chicago Bulls.

Irving averaged 27.4 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 1.4 steals this season on 48.7 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from 3-point range.

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Kyrie Irving has dealt with injuries throughout his NBA career, but just 20 games played in a season is a career-low for the New Jersey native.

Despite not having Irving and Durant, the Nets seem primed to reach the playoffs for the second consecutive season with a 25-29 record as the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference, a game and a half up on the Orlando Magic, who hold the No. 8 seed.

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