DALLAS — Utah Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks was taken off the court on a stretcher Monday night after suffering a broken leg and dislocated ankle.
With six minutes left to play in the third quarter of the Jazz’s first road game of the season, Hendricks stumbled a little bit and then while his right leg was underneath him, the rest of his body weight came down on his leg. He went straight to the court and tried to scoot himself out of bounds before burying his head in his hands. Officials stopped the game and a stretcher was brought out in short order.
As he was taken off the court, the crowd cheered for him and his teammates applauded, though many had tears in their eyes.
Walker Kessler was the first teammate to notice Hendrick’s injury on the court and looked shocked and devastated. Keyonte George, who was drafted to the Jazz last year along with Hendricks had tears in his eyes watching as the medical staff took Hendricks off the floor.
The severity of the injury was apparent to everyone in the building at the moment it happened. Before the game ended, the Jazz announced that preliminary imaging on Hendricks showed a fractured right fibula and dislocated ankle.
Hendricks left the arena with the rest of the team on Monday night and will undergo further testing when he returns to Utah on Tuesday.
The expectation is that Hendricks’ season is over after just three games and that he’ll have a very long recovery road ahead of him.