Utah Jazz star Lauri Markkanen has been sidelined, at least for the time being.
After suffering an injury in practice on Wednesday, Markkanen was officially held out of Thursday’s game with a right ankle sprain and a right hip impingement.
The 7-footer underwent an MRI to determine the severity of injuries and a potential timeline for return. It showed inflammation in his hip, according to ESPN, and he will be evaluated again in two weeks.
“It was an awkward landing going toward the basket. Tweaked his ankle and jammed his hip. So he was pulled from practice,” head coach Will Hardy said before Thursday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
It was reported that the league sent independent doctors to Utah to monitor the MRI. That did not happen, according to a league source.
The NBA, as with every injury, could review the results of Markkanen’s imaging, according to league policies. Each time a player gets an X-ray or MRI, the diagnosis is uploaded to the player’s personal injury profile at the league offices. NBA officials can then decide to investigate the images further if they choose.
But the standard practice received more scrutiny this week amid the tanking allegations against the Jazz.
Utah received a $500,000 fine earlier this month for conduct that “compromises the integrity of our games,” according to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. The fine stemmed from Markkanen, and fellow former All-Star Jaren Jackson Jr., sitting out during the fourth quarter of games.
“These players were otherwise able to continue to play and the outcomes of the games were thereafter in doubt,” the NBA wrote in a statement.
Since then, Jackson Jr. was ruled out for at least a month after having surgery on a non-cancerous growth in his knee. Fellow starter Jusuf Nurkic was also shut down following surgery on his nose.
But the Jazz, including owner Ryan Smith, have pushed back on the NBA’s reprimands.
In a game Markkanen sat out during the fourth quarter, the Jazz beat the Miami Heat.
“We won the game in Miami and got fined? That makes sense,” Smith wrote on social media.
The Indiana Pacers, a team fined $100,000 for alleged tanking practices, also disagreed with the NBA’s decision. The Pacers sat out Aaron Nesmith in a game against the Jazz, drawing an NBA inquiry.
Head coach Rick Carlisle argued Nesmith could not play, but the NBA fined the organization anyway.
“There was a league lawyer that was doing the interview that kind of unilaterally decided that Aaron Nesmith, who had been injured the night before and couldn’t hold the ball, should have played in the game, which just seems ridiculous,” Carlisle said on a local radio interview. “... And during the interview, they also asked if we considered medicating him to play in a game when we were 30 games under .500. So I was very surprised. You know, obviously didn’t agree with it.”
