INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers were in a battle with the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night and with about 4:05 left to play in the first half just as the Pacers were just starting to find their rhythm. Victor Oladipo went down. His leg buckled and he grabbed his right knee. The trainers ran onto the court and immediately covered his knee with a towel.
Whenever a boy covers the injury it’s bad. From all accounts it was a gruesome injury. Just sitting where I was in the media area on the far other side of the court I knew that it was bad because all of the players from both teams got up and ran over to him. When cats start putting towels over their own heads you know it’s bad.
Darren Collison walked back to center court with a towel around his head and neck with a look of disgust and Kyle Lowery simply squatted down at half court like, “Dang bruh!”
Within minutes the paramedics were running out onto the floor and the jumbo-tron literally had the Pacers “P” on it. We all looked at each other like ‘It’s bad bruh!!!’
It took a few minutes and they were able to get him on the stretcher and off of the court. Remarkably the Pacers resumed action and played well enough to win the game.
Shortly after he was rolled off of the court, like I mean within minutes, NBA Insider Adrian Woynarowski from ESPN tweeted “Preliminary exam has left Pacers with fear that Victor Oladipo has suffered a season-ending knee injury that will require surgery. league sources tell ESPN. He will undergo an MRI on Thursday.”
Preliminary exam has left Pacers with fear that Victor Oladipo has suffered a season-ending knee injury that will require surgery, league sources tell ESPN. He will undergo an MRI on Thursday.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 24, 2019
We all looked at each other on media row and said, “I told you that it was bad bruh! It’s really bad.” It happened so fast that none of us saw a thing. Once he went down the trainers sprinted out there and covered it up. Great work on their part. The other players surrounded him very quickly.
As we all waited for Nate McMillan to address the team like he normally does. There was a somber mood in the building and it took him a very long time to come into the pressroom to address us. When he did finally come in he had the same look that Darren Collison had on his face at center court shortly after the incident occurred.
Nate didn’t have much information to give us but he did give us what he knew at the time. He said, “They did an X-ray but will do an MRI tomorrow and we’ll talk with everyone about what they find out. He went on to say, “I believe that it’s a serious injury but we’re not going to make comments on it until we get that MRI tomorrow to find out for sure.”
Nate said, “When I ran down to see him they had already covered his leg with a towel. So I didn’t see anything and no one really said anything but anytime the doctors or trainers cover injuries I’ve seen injuries were they cover it for the player more than anything.”
In my voice, “It’s bad bruh!”
It was more of the same information in the locker room. Boyz saw what happened but really didn’t want to say what they saw until the MRI comes back and the information is made public. So I could give you a lot of other quotes but it’s all the same. One thing for sure is that this team is in full support of their leader.
Before Nate left the podium he said, “We’re going to keep him in our prayers. It’s a tough situation to ah lose. That kid has a beautiful spirit about him and he is probably one, if not the most positive guy on this team. And he has always been the one to try to lift his team and lift us. We gotta lift him now. We gotta support him now.”
So we’ll just have to sit in the cut and wait on the MRI to come back today.