NBA Analyst Bashes Mavs' Kyrie Irving Trade: 'A Swollen Pulsating Zit'

With the Mavericks struggling and battling injuries since the Kyrie Irving trade, Dallas' postseason hopes are starting to look bleak.
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The Dallas Mavericks find themselves with an uphill battle to close out the regular season. 

With just 13 games remaining before the postseason, Dallas sits as the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference and just one game ahead of falling out of the play-in tournament.

Since acquiring Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks are just 5-9 and are currently riding a three-game losing streak as both Irving and Luka Doncic are slated to miss their third-straight game tonight vs. San Antonio.

On Tuesday's episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons and The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor discussed the Western Conference playoff picture, in which the two both agreed that the Mavericks aren't real contenders, leading to Simmons' harsh thoughts on what the Irving trade will become for Dallas. 

"That Kyrie trade's gonna look like a swollen pulsating zit in about two weeks," Simmons said.

Now, with Simmons, who is a lifelong Boston Celtics fan, there's some history here with Irving. After Irving spurned the Celtics after just two seasons, he became public enemy No. 1 in Boston.

But, does he have a point?

With Irving's track record, it's always a risk to get yourself in business with the eight-tine All-Star. 

A true high-risk, high reward scenario that Dallas took the leap of faith on to add another superstar next to Doncic, proving to the face of the franchise that they can add high quality talent next to him. 

But, when that high quality talent comes with the baggage that Irving does, who becomes an unrestricted free agency this summer, the risk and the unknown going forward is a scary reality for the Mavericks.


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Michael Mulford
MICHAEL MULFORD

Michael Mulford is a writer/editor for Dallas Basketball, where he extensively covers the Dallas Mavericks. He also covers the Chicago Bulls as the Managing Editor for Bulls Wire of USA Today Sports Media Group. Mulford grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and graduated from the University of North Texas in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Event, and Sports Management. He began his pursuit of sports writing in 2017 with Dallas Sports Fanatic, where he covered the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, Texas Legends. He then became the Managing Editor of Dallas Sports Fanatic just one year later and has covered the Mavericks as a credentialed media member since 2018, including covering numerous playoff games between 2021-22 and covering the team at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in 2019. In his time covering the Mavericks, Mulford has conducted numerous interviews for exclusive stories including with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, former Maverick and current VP of Basketball Ops Michael Finley, former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson, and more. You can follow and interact with Mulford on Twitter at @TheMulf.