Thunder All-Star forward Jalen Williams played through a torn ligament in his right wrist for the entire postseason and is scheduled for surgery, Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti said Monday.
Williams, 24, averaged 23.6 points per game in the NBA Finals as the Thunder won their first league championship. He averaged 21.4 points and 5.5 rebounds in the playoffs after being selected All-NBA Third Team in the regular season.
He first sprained his wrist in February. The tear occurred near the end of the regular season.
“The part that I’m most impressed with is, in our modern era, when someone has a poor performance or they’re not playing to their capability in a game and there’s a lot of attention on it, you often see a little birdie make sure that everybody knows that the player is not 100 percent,” Presti said Monday of Williams. “Never happened with this guy. Not one time. He powered through. He showed incredible mental endurance and security in himself. I’ve said this many times: The best players are secure players. And I really thought it was pretty impressive that he just kept moving along with no excuses — and obviously played his best basketball down the stretch of the season.”
Presti said the wrist injury and surgery are routine and the Thunder anticipate Williams being available for training camp and the start of the regular season.
“It’s not an injury that people have a problem recovering from,” Presti said at his end-of-season news conference Monday. “It’s pretty common.”
–Field Level Media
