Oklahoma City Thunder star Enes Kanter could miss two months of the season after breaking his arm punching a chair.
In the second quarter of OKC’s victory over the Mavericks on Thursday night, a clearly frustrated Kanter went over to the bench during a timeout, and punched down on a padded folding chair. But the chair seemed to flip up, and Kanter caught his forearm on the metal edge. He went to the locker room and didn’t return to the game. X-rays confirmed the fracture.
Enes Kanter exits game after punching chair; per @TheVertical 'there's a fear' of a fractured right handhttps://t.co/GX5oPndXOh pic.twitter.com/eW9T4LVkgX
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 27, 2017
Kanter, considered one of the NBA’s best bench players, gave a rueful look as he left the arena with his wrist bandaged.
Team-mate Steven Adams said Kanter will be OK. “He’s all right, mate,” Adams said. “Still alive. Something like that, bro, he didn’t mean to do it, obviously. It was just one of those really frustrating times and just happened to do what he did.
“He’s already really hard on himself … like, no one else can be as hard on Enes as he is on himself. He’s probably just feeling so under the weather, just feel bad for him. But still a good man, give him some time, and he’ll be back.”
Russell Westbrook said: “It’s tough, man, especially to do it the way he did it, it’s very unfortunate. He’s a strong man, and he’ll be back better.
“Things happen. If he could take it back, he definitely would. But I think now we have to look forward and try to figure out what the positive things are and get him back as soon as possible.”
The Thunder, who are 28-19, sit sixth in the Western Conference.
