Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Taylor Hendricks remembers it like any other play. He was running back up the court and just so happened to slip on a wet spot. That wasn't the first time something like that had occurred.
It quickly became apparent, though, that the seemingly ordinary was anything but. When the Utah Jazz forward picked up his leg, he found his ankle pointed in the wrong direction.
"It wasn't really pain. I was just shocked," he said. "'Yo, like, this is really happening to me?'"
Initially, at least, his mind refused to believe what his eyes had told him. After his ankle had been put back in place, he thought that was that, and he'd soon return to the court. Adrenaline and shock can be a crazy drug.
"I was like, 'I'm probably straight. I'll be out for a week or two and then I'm back,'" Hendricks said. "And they took me back for the X-rays, and they told me what happened."
Those X-rays revealed what everyone else had already assumed: Hendricks' leg was broken.
On Wedneday, Hendricks talked to the media for the first time since the gruesome injury that ended his promising sophomore season and left some of his teammates in tears.
He said it was "heartbreaking." He had spent the summer transforming his body to give himself a different level of physicality, and that translated onto the court. He was a stronger, more confident player, able to guard just about anyone on the opposing team, no matter the position. He showed he had made real progress.
"The things that were shining through were the things that you can control every day," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "Taylor's physicality stood out. He's a different athlete physically this season compared to last season. You saw it defensively, absorbing contact, getting through screens, rebounding, and I had the utmost confidence that he would be able to bring that on a night-to-night basis."
That progress will now be delayed as he undergoes a long rehab process from a successful surgery last month. The hope is for him to be ready by the start of training camp next season.
It'll be a long road, but Hendricks has already chosen to see it as a positive.
"I don't feel like it was unfair," he said. "I just feel like everything happens for a reason. In the moment, I was thanking God because maybe he was protecting me from something that would happen later in the season. I was really just trying to take the positives of it — one of them being I'm happy it happened early in the season so I can be able to fully recover and be ready for the next season."
That optimistic attitude has been easy to see as he scooters around the Utah Jazz practice facility during practice.
"I think the injury, the news you're going to be out for a long time would be tough for anybody to take, especially based on the progress he'd made and how hard he'd worked," Hardy said. "But, man, he comes in here every day, and he's super positive, talks to everybody. He's got a smile on his face."
His team has tried to help keep his spirits high. They've dropped off stuff at his house (his mother is staying with him, too) and he does his rehab around practice time to stay connected with the team.
Hardy even had him draw up the first play of a game in November — a play that ended with a bucket by John Collins.
"He's still very much a part of the group," Hardy said. "It's hard because of the traveling right now."
The team is hoping that will change sometime in January. Once Hendricks can move without the help of a scooter or crutches, he'll be back on the team plane. Something that Hardy believes will help him keep his positive spirit.
"He's going to have enough moments of isolation," Hardy said.
There's optimism in Hendricks' future. Hardy sees him as a perimeter wing player who can change games with his defensive ability. The injury slowed his progression but it didn't stop it. The lengthy rehab gives Hendricks a chance to study the game at another level and really start studying other players in the league.
And Hardy believes that Hendricks will come out better on the other side.
"Knowing what I know about Taylor, having watched how he approached this summer … I have no doubt that he has the drive to push through it," he said.
