Kristaps Porzingis suffers torn ACL

 

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The single worst thing that can happen to the Knicks this season has now happened. Young star Kristaps Porzingis has suffered a serious injury. Here’s New York Newsday reporting:

Kristaps Porzingis’ beautiful breakout season, the one that began with his setting a Knicks record by scoring 300 points in his first 10 games, ended in the most ugly of fashions with him rolling around underneath the basket and clutching his left knee.

MRI? It was more like MR-Cry. At least that’s how many Knicks fans felt Tuesday night after the team announced that that the test had shown that their star has a torn left ACL. Not only does that mean Porzingis is out for the season. He likely won’t be back for the start of next season if you go by the average time it takes to rehab such injuries. Former Knick Derrick Rose took 16 months to come back from his torn ACL, while Iman Shumpert took nine months.

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And here’s the New York Post:

“It’s deflating,” Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said, and that was before he knew of the awful diagnosis to come. “Very deflating.”

Porzingis was on the floor. He was pounding his fist when he wasn’t grabbing for his left knee. Earlier in the season, on the other end of the floor, Porzingis had nearly bent his ankle in half against the Heat, thrown a shivering scare into the Garden, missed a few games, admitted how scary it is to have your body betray you like that.

This was different. This wasn’t the ankle. This was the knee, twisting in a way it wasn’t intended to twist. The replay went up on the Garden board and the gasp was immediate and it was unambiguous. He struggled to his feet, hobbled off the floor.

Soon, he flashed a thumbs up as he walked out of the Garden, his leg wrapped in a knee stabilizer, bound for an MRI tube that would deliver the devastating news: torn anterior cruciate ligament. Out for the year. And who knows how much more after that.

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And another New York Post report:

The Knicks didn’t announce a timetable, but the 7-foot-3 Latvian will need surgery and is done for the season. His availability for training camp in late September is in doubt.

A review of torn ACLs in the NBA in recent years show absences that range from seven to 12 months.

The injury, which occurred after his dunk over Giannis Antetokounmpo occurred 12 days before Porzingis was slated to make his first All-Star appearance, in Los Angeles for Team LeBron.

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