This may be a semi unpopular opinion but I blame the refs for the injury. They allowed Portland so much physicality late in the game and into the OTs. So much over the back contact by the Blazers on the offensive boards and in general. Blazers got every single call down the stretch it seemed. Harkless and Nurkic of course were just throwing themselves around and something like this was bound to happen. Someone getting hurt that is. On a few plays before Nurkic elbowed Dudley in the post knocking him down...Dudley was on the ground while there was a battle for a loose ball. Nurkic had the shoulder of Carroll on the rebound and pulled him down. Carroll as a result accidently elbowed Nurkic in the face bad and Nurkic fell down and over Dudley who was still on the ground. Dudley screamed at the ref (Dudley was laying on the ground during the entire sequence and the refs called nothing) about how he was down on the ground with players over him trying to jump for rebounds and all and nothing. It was just a matter of time after that. FWIW I think Nurkic is one of the, if not dirtiest players in the league. I cant stand his b**** ass one bit - but completely sucks he got hurt like this. I am not saying no one deserves that, but even though Nurkic is a dirty player he isnt to the Karl Malone level dirty where he needs to suffer something like this. I hope he recovers back fully and plays well again.
I think its because the trainers, and EMTs would need that space and the trainer would be there to console him. It is also something psychological that the veterans seemed like they wanted the other players to avoid seeing. If you're an F1 race car driver and see a horrific crash, it effects the way you drive, same concept here. You have a game to finish, and playoffs coming up, you can be there for your teammate as soon as they get the leg stabilized. As a player, you have the media, your family, your wife, your side piece, your friends, social media, your own injuries, and a lot to overcome mentally as is,at the end of the day you can't change how you play.
Just awful...hope he can come back at his best, i'm a fan of Nurkic too. For Portland this is huge also cause i guess he's going to be out for most if not all the next season... And that ref...wow.
Eh... That's a hard pill to swallow boss. The injury looks like a freak break. I've seen that type of contact in games 100x over and not seen a break like this in quite some time. Maybe the extra adrenaline of a double OT game fueled him to jump harder and higher than he's ever done before, but that leg just gave out. I do agree with you on the whole, certain bigs are allowed to do whatever they please out there and create a dangerous environment. JV, Gasol, Green, Zaza, Bogut, Nurk,... the list goes on. Those bigs kick, punch and do whatever they want in games and injuries can come from them, but this injury here, that's all Nurk's body letting him down.
I see this from a somewhat different angle, having seen what happened in baseball with P Dave Dravecky back in the 90s... he came back from a lengthy rehab after surgery, by all accounts was throwing well, and then one night his upper arm just snapped during pitch delivery. Two years later, he loses the arm to cancer. I didn't see a lot of contact down low in the run-up to the break; he may have bumped someone else's foot but it's hard to see that causing his lower shin and foot to depart 90 degrees from plumb. For Nurk's sake, I hope the medical staff takes a hard look at his bloodwork...
Good God that's possible too, and as much I hate Nurk I hope that's not the case. Noncontact injuries are easily the scariest ones.
From a mechanics point of view, he came down on someone's foot with his leg at an angle but his whole body weight on the leg. At least that's what I gathered when I looked at it once. Have not done frame by frame analysis. The one leg at an angle was not able to support the entire body weight coming down after a jump. Especially susceptible if there was an existing crack or a fatigue point. So while it is a freak accident, its not totally surprising given the mechanics.
this is really a confusing injury, how did his leg just snap like that, man! on the other hand, GS loses another challenger....
