Nets guard Kyrie Irving is done for the rest of the season.
Brooklyn announced Thursday that Irving will undergo shoulder surgery and will thus be sidelined for the rest of the campaign. The 27-year-old appeared in only 20 games since he signed a four-year, $142 million contract during the offseason.
Kyrie Irving will have arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder. He will be out for the remainder of the 2019-20 season. pic.twitter.com/HOuNdyCLrF
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) February 20, 2020Irving has been ravaged by a slew of injuries in his first year in Brooklyn. He's missed a total of 26 games due to injuries in his right shoulder and his right knee. Head coach Kenny Atkinson initially confirmed Wednesday that Irving aggravated the shoulder injury and would be out indefinitely. He also said Irving would visit with specialists, and this seems to be the result of those meetings.
On Dec. 24, Irving settled for a cortisone shot as his shoulder continued to be an issue. The Nets diagnosed the injury as a "shoulder impingement" and Irving believed there was potential for surgery at a later time. Having the surgery now, insetad of in the offseason, should mean that he is back sooner ahead of next year, when Kevin Durant will also be back with the team.
"I tried to go without any anti-inflammatories, which is why it took so long," Irving told CBS Sports in January. "And now I'm at a place where the next step was to either get a cortisone shot or get surgery. So that was the ultimatum I was fixed with. So now I'm just doing to best I can to live off this cortisone and move forward if I need surgery in the future."
He last played on Feb. 1, where he recorded a season-low 11 points against the Washington Wizards. Irving is averaging 27.4 points and 6.4 assists per game this season. The Nets are in eighth place among the Eastern Conference, five games above the ninth-place Wizards.
