Jalen Williams Reveals Details About Early Eye Injury

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Jalen Williams opened up about his eye injury early in his rookie season.

Jalen Williams had an incredible rookie campaign that masked the reality of Chet Holmgren's injury. With the No. 2 pick out for the season, Oklahoma City Thunder fans were bummed, obviously, though Holmgren gave them plenty of reasons to anticipate his return.

In the meantime, however, Williams grew into a potential star. The No. 12 pick from a year ago didn't start off in the perfect position to make the statement he did. 

On top of coming off the bench early, Williams suffered an eye injury that required surgery. 

"I had eye surgery," Williams said on the Don't Trip podcast. "I actually almost punctured my eye and all that. I'm going through the season and my eye is bloodshot red all the time. I couldn't blow my nose until this past March."

This eye injury caused Williams to miss some time early in the season, but despite the injury, he began winning over more and more minutes, even making his way into the starting lineup early. 

Williams appeared in 75 games, starting in 62 of them. As time went on, his game kept expanding. 

"There was just a lot of stuff during the year, my first year, my vision still hurt, I still gotta go to bed laid all the way up," Williams continued. "...I'm going through all that, and I'm playing well."

Once Williams was able to recover fully from the injury, get a feel for the pace of the game and acclimate to the starting lineup, he began playing incredibly well and efficiently. 

"Everything started to slow down and I can figure out the game. My first game back, it felt like I was shooting at two rims," Williams said. "It was just really hazy, it was my first time with the mask. I was just adjusting so much at the beginning of the year."

Looking at Williams' first year is impressive. He averaged 14.1 points per game on 52 percent shooting from the field and 36 percent from beyond the arc. What makes this even better is the fact that not only was he adjusting to the pace as a regular rookie would, but he was adjusting to an injury, working his way into the lineup and earning his minutes. 

With such an impressive second half of the season, Williams will be a focus for Thunder fans as a new season rolls around and the Thunder have the potential to make some real noise in the league.

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