Source: Alex Goodlett / Getty
We’re not even a full week into the 2024-25 NBA season, and we’ve already had our first freak injury.
The Utah Jazz were taking on the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night when forward Taylor Hendricks ran down the court on offense. But when he got closer to the paint, he appeared to trip over his legs and fall awkwardly, resulting in his right leg snapping with no contact from any other players.
He was immediately placed on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital, with the team eventually learning that he suffered a fractured right fibula and dislocated his ankle.
His teammates are rallying around him, and his head coach, Will Hardy, expressed that his recovery has already begun despite the freak non-contact injury. He is likely still in shock.
“He’s a great kid, and so we’re really just trying to focus on him — his health, keeping his spirits up, as he begins the road of his recovery,” Hardy said. “But these are the moments in sports that suck.”
Will Hardy postgame on Taylor Hendricks: pic.twitter.com/8HfPqtPMak
— JP Chunga (@JP_Chunga) October 29, 2024
When he fell to the floor, his teammates can be seen reacting, including Walker Kessler, who stared in shock. Lauri Markkanen understands all the hard work Hendricks put in during the offseason and promises that his teammates will be there to support him as his season takes a turn for the worst.
“Super unfortunate,” said Markkanen after the Jazz’s 110-102 loss. “We’re all here for him. It sucks that we lost, but he’s more important than that. We know how hard he worked the whole summer to be ready for this opportunity, so it sure feels tough for him. We’re going to stay here for him and support him. We talk about fighting through adversity, whatever it is. Tonight, it happened to be that. Nobody can do it alone, so it’s staying together and trying to work through it and not giving up.”
WARNING: Utah Jazz sophomore forward Taylor Hendricks tripped over himself, landed wrong, & his leg bent sideways.
Hendricks was taken to the hospital on a stretcher.
Prayers up
pic.twitter.com/W9zdE23e9k
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) October 29, 2024
This is Hendricks’ second season in the NBA after he was a member of the UCF Knights and was the ninth pick in the 2023 draft.
Now, he’s expected to miss the rest of the season as he heals up for what was already a season for the Utah Jazz to focus on player development.
See how social media is reacting to the injury below.
window.addEventListener(‘interaction’, function () {
setTimeout(function () {
var s = document.createElement(‘script’), el = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[ 0 ];
s.async = true;
s.src = ‘https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js’;
el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);
}, 1000)
});