Jaden Ivey. Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
Detroit Pistons guard Jaden Ivey suffered such a gruesome leg injury on Wednesday, January 1 that his teammates made sure to hide it from the fans in attendance.
In the fourth quarter of the Pistons game against the Orlando Magic at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday, the left leg of Ivey, 22, got trapped underneath the Magic’s Cole Anthony while both players were chasing a loose ball.
Ivey was immediately in absolute anguish on the floor as he was attended to by the Pistons’ medical staff. Eventually, one of Ivey’s teammates grabbed a towel from the bench to cover up his leg and the rest of the team made a circle around him.
A stretcher was used to transport Ivey off the court as the arena watched on with hushed silence. Ivey’s teammate, Ausar Thompson, was seen wiping tears away.
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Sources told ESPN on Thursday, January 2 that Ivey had suffered a broken fibula in his left leg and would likely miss the remainder of the season.
“It’s tough. It’s tough on all of us,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “No better teammate, person than J.I. No one who cares more about this thing than him. It’s tough to see.”
Bickerstaff, 45, added, “At the heart of this team, and what we’ve tried to preach all year since we’ve been here is togetherness. If one guy goes down, you don’t want to let that guy down, so everybody else has to step up. Again, it’s the emotions, it’s the human aspect of it, but I thought our guys did a really good job of just sticking together and getting it done.”
Pistons star Cade Cunningham said Ivey’s injury was “tough on the whole group.”
“To see him hurting like that is tough on us,” Cunningham, 23, told reporters. “He’s built for it, he’s going to shake back knowing him. He’s going to work his tail off and he’s going to be better than ever when he gets back. It’s hard to see that, for sure.”
After the injury occurred, Cunningham explained he gathered the team for “a prayer.”
“Just wanted to collect ourselves and talk about it and make sure everybody was on the same page about what we had to do from that point on,” Cunningham said.
Ivey, who was selected by the Pistons with the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, had been averaging 17.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
The Pistons return to action on Friday, January 3 against the Charlotte Hornets.
