HOUSTON — Multiple sources believe that Utah Jazz guard Vince Williams Jr. suffered a significant ACL injury during the Jazz’s game against the Houston Rockets on Monday night. The fears are that he will be out for the rest of the season and is facing a very long recovery.
Williams will have an MRI in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.
“It doesn’t look great,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.
Williams was ruled out for the remainder of the game after a gruesome left knee injury in the first half. Running down the court during a fast break early in the second quarter, Williams was hip checked by Rockets forward Tari Eason.
As he was trying to steady himself after the collision, Williams’ knee bent in the wrong direction and he fell out of bounds in front of the Jazz bench.
“That’s not basketball,” Hardy said of the play that left Williams on the ground with the injury.
Williams was helped off the court by Jazz staffers before being carried into the locker room. He left the arena on crutches.
This is the play that took Vince Williams Jr. out for the game. Pretty gruesome on the upper right of the screen.
— Sarah Todd (@nbasarah.bsky.social) February 23, 2026 at 9:14 PM
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Jazz head coach Will Hardy immediately called a timeout, and as Williams lay on the court, the coach confronted the officials about the non-call play that resulted in Eason scoring for the Rockets.
After the game, Eason went to the Jazz locker room to check on Williams.
“I‘ve known Vince for a little bit and he’s just a really good dude, hard working dude,” Eason told the Deseret News. “It was just respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I know it’s his contract year ... I didn’t intend on doing anything. My intentions are always just to play hard. So I went to go holler and just check on him. Obviously nothing helps, but just tell him that I apologize. You know, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody.”
Once Williams was off the court, a number of Jazz players rewatched the play with some of the Jazz coaching staff and screwed their faces into grimaces when seeing the injury and what caused it.
“Obviously devastated for Vince,” Keyonte George said. “Everybody’s gonna have their own opinion (about the play), but can’t really look into it too much. These plays, just running down the floor ... just a freak accident, honestly.”
The Jazz later announced that Williams would not return to the game due to a left knee injury. The Rockets beat the Jazz 125-105.
Williams came to the Jazz along with John Konchar and Jaren Jackson Jr. in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies just before the trade deadline. Williams’ contract has a team option for next season worth $2.5 million.
If the injury ends up being a torn ACL, recovery after surgery could be anywhere from seven to 12 months.