Vince Williams Jr. Suffers Devastating Knee Injury on Reckless Play by Tari Eason

Tari Eason took out Vince Williams Jr. during the Rockets win over the Jazz. | @MrBuckBuckNB

The Rockets blew out the Jazz on Monday night, 125-105. Houston pulled away in the second quarter and was up by as many as 30 points in the second half. To make things even worse for Utah, it lost Vince Williams Jr. to what is believed to be an ACL injury during the second quarter when Tari Eason veered into the side of Williams on a fast break.

The play happened right in front of a referee and ended with Eason dunking the basketball while Williams crumpled into a heap on the Jazz bench. Replay showed both how reckless Eason’s decision to bump Williams was and how bad the injury might be.

Josh Okogie steals the ball and Tari Eason finishes with the fastbreak dunk after bumping into Vince Williams Jr., who got injured and carried to the locker room (with replays)

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Williams was helped to the tunnel, unable to put any pressure on his leg and was then shown being carried to the locker room.

After the final buzzer, while the announcers were recapping the game and getting ready to throw it to an interview with Kevin Durant, the camera lingered on Eason speaking with Jazz guard Keyonte George. Eason seemed shocked by whatever George was saying and put his hands on his head. He then appeared to reenact what happened with Williams.

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According to the Deseret News, Williams is believed to have suffered a severe ACL injury, but will undergo an MRI on Tuesday in Salt Lake City. After talking to George, Eason made his way to the Jazz locker room to apologize:

“I‘ve known Vince for a little bit and he’s just a really good dude, hard working dude,” Eason told the Deseret News. “It was just respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I know it’s his contract year ... I didn’t intend on doing anything. My intentions are always just to play hard. So I went to go holler and just check on him. Obviously nothing helps, but just tell him that I apologize. You know, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody.”

On Tuesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania confirmed the worst: Williams had torn his ACL.

“Utah Jazz guard Vince Williams Jr. has been diagnosed with a season-ending torn left ACL, sources tell ESPN,” Charania wrote today. “Williams sustained the injury in a collision with Tari Eason in Houston on Monday night.”

Williams was drafted by the Grizzlies in the first round of the 2022 NBA draft out of VCU. He was sent to the Jazz as part of the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade. He has averaged 14.1 minutes in six games for the tanking Jazz. Next year there’s a team option on his contract. Hopefully he doesn’t have to do his rehab as a free agent.

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