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Witnessing an injury is never a good sight. Injuries though are common in the sports arena and basketball is no exception. Injuries in other sports, where more protection is used, do not look as gruesome as they do in basketball. Being a sport where protective gear is not required, the players are prone to some of the most gruesome injuries.
From twisting their ankles or knees and tearing their ACL, to even breaking bones, we have seen it all in basketball. Some of these injuries threaten the careers of the players, while others may not be so severe. However, the recovery period is always quite long and there is always the risk of hurting the affected area due to a hurried return to action.
Here is a list of five of the worst injuries in the NBA:
#5 Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose is one of the most injury-prone players in the history of the game. The worst of his injuries came when he was playing for the Bulls against the Philadelphia 76ers in a playoff game in 2011-12. Rose went for a lay-up and lost his balance, coming shattering down and grimacing in the pain associated with a torn ACL.
Rose had surgery performed in May 2012, with an estimated recovery period of 8–12 months.
He missed the whole season and when he came back in 2013, promptly picked up another injury early.
#4 Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson, while playing for the Phoenix Suns, went for a dunk in a game against the Dallas Mavericks in 2005, little knowing what was about to happen next. He landed face-first on the court. It was an ugly fall - his head rebounded off the wooden floor and to make matters worse, the ball hit the back of his head. Despite boasting a bloodied face, he showed enough courage to get back on his feet and take some free throws. But from the looks of it, it was evident that the guard had picked up a serious injury.
His face was swollen around the eye and he suffered a broken orbital bone, i.e. the socket of the eye and the deformity in the eye is visible in the video.
#3 Jamal Crawford
Back in 2003, Jamal Crawford, a Bulls player was guarding Fred Hoiberg of the Minnesota Timberwolves at the three-point line. Hoiberg pump faked and Crawford ended up jumping on the opponent's body, landing on his upper back with his legs above his head.
He winced in pain and was left immobile on the court. Play was stopped for 10 minutes as Crawford was carried off the court on a stretcher with a brace on his neck. It is one of the nastiest looking injuries in the history of the game.
Though the injury looked life-threatening, it was just a sprain and he was out of the hospital the next day. Interestingly, Jamal Crawford is currently playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
#2 Shaun Livingston
Shaun Livingston, playing for the Los Angles Clippers against the Charlotte Bobcats, met with one of the most awful knee injuries of all-time. Driving to the basket, Livingston went for a standard lay-up against Gerald Green to earn his team two easy points.
However, he couldn't get the basket and landed on split legs without any contact from any player, his left knee snapping in the wrong direction.
He dislocated his patella tendon and tearing 3 out of the 4 major ligaments in his knee. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament, posterior cruciate ligament, medial collateral ligament and lateral meniscus.The twist was so bad that the video looked morphed and unreal. Shaun Livingston is now playing for Golder State Warriors and won the championship last year.
#1 Rudy Tomjanovich
During a Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets game in 1977, an unsporting event took place on the court which resulted in Rudy Tomjanovich suffering a blow on the face. During an altercation between the players of both teams, Kermit Washington was trying to protect his players when he saw Tomjanovich sprinting towards them. As a result, he threw a hard punch to his face which led to his head bouncing off the court.
The court was bloodied with Rudy's spills. The blow shattered Tomjanovich's jaw and face, resulting in life-threatening head injuries, leaving him sidelined for five months. This is one of the most traumatizing punches in the history of sport. The entire incident is recounted in a book by John Feinstein: The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight That Changed Basketball Forever.
Guess the Lakers players!
