New Orleans Pelicans All-Star Anthony Davis suffered a compound fracture of his ego last night while watching his team dominate the Los Angeles Lakers at the Smoothie King Center, according to team officials, and will be out for the rest of the season.
Davis, who remained on the bench the entire game with a “rest” designation, severely fractured his ego late in the fourth quarter as the Pelicans coasted to a 128-115 win while playing incredible team ball yet again without the big man.
There was no additional damage to the All-Star, according to Pelicans interim general manager Danny Ferry who replaced the recently eternally fired Dell Demps. Davis is expected to remain hospitalized for approximately seven days and will not play for the team again this season and likely ever again.
“Sadly, AD will not be playing again this season or anytime soon,” Ferry said. “His ego was completely shattered last night and doctors say it will take some time to heal.”
A source indicated it’d take at least six months for Davis to be able to get back on his feet and possibly longer to return to the court, putting his 2019-20 season in jeopardy. A spokesperson for the Pelicans said the franchise will not release more information until after Davis begins his rehab.
Davis’ injury called to mind memories of Cleveland Cavaliers player J.R. Smith, who suffered a similar injury during the 2018 NBA Finals when he forgot the score was tied and ran out the clock leading to an overtime loss in game one. While Smith, who was high at the time of his gruesome injury, returned to the court for next game, most analysts say that if he knew what was going on at the time like most people he’d have been completely devastated and had a much longer recovery.
Several sports superstars, including former NFL safety and New Orleans Saint Jairus Byrd, who suffered a devastating fractured ego during the 2014 season after signing a monster six-year $56 million contract and was never the same player again, reached out to Davis.
“These kinds of injuries can be challenging — they’re incredibly tough to come back from,” Byrd said. “This will likely be the biggest mental challenge of his career thus far as he begins to rehab. He’s going to want to push it and get back out there. But when you know your teammates play better without you, you have to come to grips with it.”
Davis turned his head toward the scoreboard with 1:33 left in the fourth quarter and almost instantly writhed in pain when he saw his team was going to beat the Lakers quite handily. Gameplay stopped as trainers attended to AD. Davis’ entourage was in attendance and cameras caught his daddy, LeBron James, standing over him with a worried expression.
“AD looks broken,” James told Rich Paul his long-time friend and agent for Davis after the game. “Might need to go with plan KD.”
After a roughly 10-minute delay, Davis was carefully put on a stretcher, given a WubbaNub, a safety blanket, and taken to trainer’s room.
“This is an extremely unfortunate injury that occurred on a highly visible stage, but could also have occurred anytime, anywhere. Our first thoughts are with Davis and his family,” Ferr said in a statement the following morning.
“Initial discussions with our doctors suggest Davis will need months of grueling mental therapy before he’s ready to play again but they are optimistic he can recover since he’s so young. We are hopeful that by this summer he’ll be back to full strength. Any other discussion about the future of our team would be inappropriate at this time. Our focus is solely on finishing out the season with the incredible players we have and doing whatever we can to help get that delicate pansy out of here.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver also released a statement: “It was difficult to watch the injury that Anthony Davis sustained while merely a spectator. The thoughts and prayers of all of us at the NBA are with Anthony and his family, though we did tell the Pelicans, who refused to listen to our warnings and recommendations to keep Anthony away from the team, that this could possibly happen and that the NBA is in no way, shape or form responsible for this.”