Portland Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic suffered compound fractures to the fibula and tibia of his lower left leg in a double-overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday night and the injury will keep him out indefinitely. Nurkic had to be stretchered off the court with help of his teammates and team doctors after finishing the game with a double-double of 32 points and 16 rebounds, helping the Blazers to get a win which clinched a playoff berth.
Numerous NBA players reacted to Jusuf’s season-ending injury and wished him all the best and a speedy recovery.
Lillard has seen this type of injury before
“It made me sick to my stomach,” Lillard said. “I think he tried to tip it in, he crashed the glass and I saw him hit the ground and roll over real quick, and I thought maybe he got hit in the face or something again. As I was walking over there, I saw everybody else turn around real quick and walk away, and then I looked and saw his leg — and you just hate to see that happen to him.”
Lillard said it reminded him of Paul George’s injury during the Team USA exhibition in Las Vegas in 2014, a game Lillard also was playing in. “That’s exactly what it looked like to me,” Lillard said.
“You hate to see him have to go through something like that, having his best season in the NBA,” Lillard continued. “We’re going down a crucial stretch in the season, trying to obviously secure our playoff spot, find our position and then have a postseason, so seeing something like that happen to him … You never want to see that for your friend or teammate, and then especially as a player, you don’t want to see anyone have to go through that. “And it’s also going to be hard on our team. CJ’s already out, now him having a tough injury, so every way you look at it, it was a blow. It felt like it after the game.”
He offered comfort to his teammate via his Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvdijVqgWR0/?utm_source=ig_embed
Here you can see good wishes from the rest of the NBA players and teams:
— CJ McCollum (@CJMcCollum) March 26, 2019
Prayers to go out to @bosnianbeast27!!!! You hate to see injuries like that.. Health is bigger then basketball.. I know hell make a speedy recovery and come back better! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
— Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) March 26, 2019
🙏🙏🙏 @bosnianbeast27 https://t.co/TDqKlbazcn
— Nikola Vucevic (@NikolaVucevic) March 26, 2019
Prayers up for @bosnianbeast27 🙏🏽
— Karl-Anthony Towns (@KarlTowns) March 26, 2019
Hate this part of the game. Prayers up for Nurkic!
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) March 26, 2019
Nurkic’s former team, the Denver Nuggets, also sent support:
From your #MileHighBasketball family,
You're in our thoughts, big fella. pic.twitter.com/v8709chPuv
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) March 26, 2019
Nurkic will spend the next several months on rehabilitation and it’s going to be the race against time to get back on the court for the start of the next season but if we look at Paul George’s example, he came back even stronger and we wish the same thing to Jusuf.
