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Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams says fans are lucky his GM Sam Presti revealed Williams' injured hand; otherwise, he was planning on keeping the news to himself. After suffering a right-hand injury in a regular-season game against the Phoenix Suns in April, Jalen says playing with the injury throughout the playoffs had happened before, when Hall of Fame guard Kobe Bryant pulled it off, which meant adjusting his shooting form.
Bryant, the late great Los Angeles Lakers legend, adjusted his shooting form amid the 2010 NBA playoffs due to a broken index finger, opting to play rather than undergo surgery. Williams revealed what doctors told him as he weighed out options that would keep him on the floor throughout the postseason.
“They were telling me, and I don't want to make this a Kobe thing, but that was one of the people that they brought up that had done it before and played through it. So, they were saying it was doable,” Williams said. “Throughout the week, I basically changed my jump shot from that week up until then to shoot in a way that required touch and only use my fingertips. So I didn't have to follow through all the time.
“I basically did that for six days, and then we came up with the solution to start doing a cortisone shot, and then, I got a lidocaine shot, and I started practicing with those two,” Williams concluded.
With enough reps, Williams, in true Kobe Bryant fashion, managed throughout the Thunder's championship run.
Jalen Williams wanted to keep his injury a secret amid Thunder run
Thunder All-Star Jalen Williams underwent successful surgery on his right hand, as he confirmed in his latest YouTube video, explaining how he suffered a torn scapholunate ligament and the process that followed. Thunder GM Sam Presti first revealed Williams' injury during his annual end-of-the-year address, which Jalen says led to his full explanation video, following surgery.
“Everybody's lucky that Sam even brought it up because I was feining to have surgery and not really say anything,” Williams said. “As bad as I wanted to shut people up after we won and post all this stuff about my wrist, I also lost the urge to do it because we had won a championship.
So, in my head, I didn't really care anymore. So, that's where I was going with my wrist thing. I didn't want that to be a distraction or something stopping me from being as great as I can be.”
In the end, Williams thrived, including a 40-point masterpiece against the Pacers in Game 5 of the NBA Finals that led him to a championship in only his third NBA season.
