Jason Kidd Injury: Dallas Mavericks Guard Leaves Game with Back Injury

A rough start to the season got potentially terrible for the Dallas Mavericks, as point guard Jason Kidd has left the Mavericks' game against the Spurs. 

Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas is reporting that Kidd played most of the first quarter before checking out with 24.7 seconds remaining. It's unclear as to how he hurt himself.

The fact that Caplan called Kidd's return doubtful is something of a positive.

No, it doesn't indicate that a return is likely and may well signal a few missed games—it's not the kind of injury that's an obvious loss of time. 

But Kidd will be 39 at season's end. Injuries are always a big deal for players that age, especially at point guard.

(If this does nothing else, it should remind the Mavs that they are an old team that is extremely reliant on players in their early 30s. Or, in Kidd's case, much older than that.)

The severity of this injury will be determined at a later date and time. But for the sake of argument, let's say that it's a minor injury that will have Kidd back at 100 percent in short order.

These are the kinds of injuries that happen to teams when they get older. Heck, it happens to young teams, so it's certainly going to hit older ones. 

Take a look at the some of the Mavericks' players:

Jason Kidd	Age 38
Jason Terry	Age 34
Dirk Nowitzki	Age 33
Vince Carter	Age 34
Brendan Haywood	Age 32
Lamar Odom	Age 32
Shawn Marion	Age 33

No matter how serious the injury ends up being, the Mavericks need to take this as a sign to make their team younger. The fact that it's unknown how Kidd got hurt certainly doesn't indicate a freak accident that can happen to anyone.

The Mavericks are an old team. Through the early season, they've looked old, but they've managed to stay healthy.

Now they're still looking old, but not staying healthy.

That's a wicked combination that's not going to get any better as time goes on.

Obviously, we won't know just how severe this injury is until after the game. But right now, the Mavericks are 3-4, old and now banged-up. It's a long season, but their quest for a repeat is not off to a good start.

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