Jusuf Nurkic suffered a horrific leg injury Monday night during the Portland Trail Blazers double-overtime win over the New Jersey Nets. It was clearly a broken left leg and it happened during the second overtime of the game. The Blazers — and the rest of the NBA — were shocked and appalled by it. Many took to Twitter to respond.
Nurkic was stretchered off during what was an emotional scene as Portland’s home fans gave him an ovation and chanted his name.
We are going to warn you here, do not view the video below if you’re squeamish. It’s really difficult to watch.
The video is below, but again, consider yourself warned:
Blazers fans chanted for Nurkic as he was on the court in pain:
While obviously everyone is concerned about Nurkic’s recovery, this is also a huge blow to the Blazers. The 24-year-old Bosnian center was averaging a career-high 15.4 points per game, while reeling in 10.3 rebounds, dishing out 3.2 assists and blocking 1.4 shots in 27.3 minutes per game this season. Meanwhile, his PER (23.12) and true shooting percentage (57.0) were both career-highs as well.
It’s just a devastating situation to both Nurkic and Portland. To make things worse, he dropped a career-high 32 points, had 16 rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots and two steals before getting injured Monday night.
