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Nets forward Caris LeVert, who has overcome three foot operations to become one of the team’s most promising players, sustained a gruesome right leg injury Monday night in a 120-113 road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The full extent of LeVert’s injury was not immediately known. His right leg appeared to be bent inward at the ankle after he made an awkward landing while attempting a block with less than five seconds remaining in the first half.
LeVert, 24, was taken to a Minneapolis hospital for a full evaluation, according to the Nets.
Some players could be seen in tears as medical and training staff prepared LeVert to leave the court on a stretcher.
“There were really just no words,” Nets forward Joe Harris said after the game, according to The Associated Press. “We didn’t talk even when we came in at halftime. There’s nothing really to be said. You could just feel it, the emotions from everybody. Guys were crying coming in, it was really that horrific just to see.”
The injury conjured visions of the ghastly leg injuries sustained by Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics and Isaiah Canaan of the Phoenix Suns last season, and Paul George, then with the Indiana Pacers, during a U.S.A. Basketball scrimmage in 2014.
N.B.A. players quickly responded to LeVert’s injury with an outpouring of support on social media, including Jeremy Lin, who sustained a season-ending injury with the Nets on opening night last season.
LeVert, in his third season, entered Monday’s play as the team’s top scorer, averaging 19.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.7 badists in 30.8 minutes a game. He had totaled 10 points, 4 rebounds and 5 badists at the time of the injury.
On the YES Network broadcast of the game, viewers received a lengthy caution before a replay of LeVert’s injury was shown.
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