Kyrie Irving Injury Update: Twitter Reacts to Star's Season-Ending Knee Surgery

The final image of Kyrie Irving in the NBA Finals will be him limping off the court in the Cleveland Cavaliers' Game 1 loss against Golden State, as the star guard is officially done for the season. 

Per Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, the Cavaliers announced that Irving suffered a fractured left kneecap and will need three to four months of recovery time following surgery:

ESPN's Marc Stein noted the Cavaliers' press release stated Irving will undergo surgery in the "coming days":

After the game Thursday, Irving seemed to fear that this was a serious injury, per ESPN.com's Brian Windhorst:

"

You can hear in the tone of my voice that I'm a little worried. I just want to make sure everything is OK, and I'm going to take the necessary steps to see what's going on.

It was a little bit different than what I had been experiencing. [Before,] there was a quick pinch, but I could still feel what was going on in my knee. This time, I kind of knew it was a little bit different [from] the other times.

"

Irving issued a personal statement on his Instagram page, noting that he will "be back soon" and encouraging his teammates and backup guard Matthew Dellavedova:

As far as what exactly the Cavaliers will be losing against Golden State with Irving out, ESPN Stats & Info showed how much better they performed with him on the court in Game 1:

The NBA on ESPN went deeper than that, showing how Irving's performance on Thursday night stacked up against his previous efforts this postseason:

Taking a big-picture perspective, Tom Withers of the Associated Press observed that the Cavaliers have lost three starters to injury this season:

If the pressure on LeBron James to dominate the NBA Finals wasn't great enough before Irving went down, Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution somewhat jokingly noted the game's best player will have to be superhuman for Cleveland to have a chance:

Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards took time to wish Irving well in his recovery from the injury:

Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer opined that Irving's prior suspicions that he was just dealing with tendinitis that caused him to miss two games against Atlanta may not go away following this injury:

Irving's injury means Dellavedova will see an increased role. The Australian star only played nine minutes in Game 1, scoring no points on zero shot attempts.

Shortly before Irving's injury was made public, the NBA tweeted out a Vine of Dellavedova doing extra work during practice in preparation for Game 2:

Even though he's just 23 years old, Irving's career has been marred by injuries going back to his one year at Duke. The former Blue Devils star only played 11 games in college because of a toe injury and missed 49 games in his first three seasons with the Cavaliers. 

ESPN's J.A. Adande did point out the irony that Irving's 2014-15 season ends now after he appeared in more regular-season games than ever:

There are always going to be questions asked about how much Irving played, both in the regular season (36.4 minutes per game) and Game 1 (44 minutes). He didn't show any signs of injury or fatigue in the fourth quarter when he made at the time a game-saving block on a Stephen Curry layup attempt in the final minute. 

Irving's injury is just a moment of bad luck for the Cavaliers, who have overcome a lot of that en route to the NBA Finals. Losing Kevin Love because of a shoulder injury against Boston was the first domino to fall, followed by one bad step by Irving against Golden State. 

The Cavaliers were already facing long odds with Irving to win the NBA Finals because the Warriors have been the NBA's best team all year and have shown nothing in the playoffs to prove otherwise. James is great and showed it with 44 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Game 1, but even his outstanding performance wasn't enough in a 108-100 overtime loss.

Now, as great as James is, the Cavaliers will need players like Dellavedova and J.R. Smith to step up if they want to win their first title in franchise history. They rose to the challenge against Atlanta and are capable of doing it again.