The Dallas Mavericks will be without guard Kemba Walker, the team announced on Friday. The news comes a day before the 12-year NBA veteran’s salary would have been guaranteed for the remainder of the season.
In his six weeks as a Maverick, Walker averaged eight points in 16 minutes per game in nine appearances.
He signed a non-guaranteed, one-year contract worth $2.2 million on Nov. 28, according to NBA insider Marc Stein.
Dallas is able to continue without Walker as the team has a healthy group of guards. McKinley Wright IV, for example, recently saw minutes against Walker.
Walker, 32, scored two points in two minutes in his last appearance for Dallas in a 124-95 loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday.
After spending the first eight seasons of his career with the Charlotte Hornets, Walker played on a maximum contract for the Celtics from 2019-2021. His former teammate tweeted a hopeful reaction to news of his release on Friday.
Mavericks GM on Kemba Walker’s knee: “It’s not good at all”
While playing for the Celtics, Walker received a stem cell injection due to pain in his left knee and missed the start of the 2021-22 season. He also sat out the final two games of Boston’s first-round playoff loss to the Brooklyn Nets due to persistent knee problems.
Walker’s health received a less than glowing endorsement from Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison three days after the team signed him.
When asked about the newly signed guard’s knee, Harrison said: “It’s not good at all. But he rehabilitated it and it’s the best he’s felt in the last two years, so we’ll see how long that lasts.
Before signing with the Mavericks, Walker spent the first six weeks of season training alone after the Detroit Pistons waived him in October. The Pistons acquired him in an offseason trade with the New York Knicks in July.
In February, Walker and the Knicks agreed to sideline him for the remainder of the 2021-22 season as he averaged career lows of 11.6 points and 3.5 assists in 37 games.
The story goes on
Despite posting a 44-point performance against the Washington Wizards and a historic triple-double on Christmas Day, it wasn’t enough to stay in the team’s rotation.
Walker has performed well in minutes for the Mavericks this season. Before he was signed, he told The Boston Globe that he “certainly had more in the tank”.
Now, the four-time All-Star’s longtime fans and former teammates will be checking out his signing elsewhere.
Guard Kemba Walker was fired by the Dallas Mavericks, leaving the veteran’s NBA status in limbo. (Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports)