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Jonathan Isaac’s Injury No Laughing Matter

by Frank Quartarone  August 7th 2020 

On Sunday night, Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac suffered a terrible injury that could seriously threaten his status as the potential franchise player the Magic have been looking for. Early in the fourth quarter, Orlando was cruising en route to a lopsided 132-116 win over the hapless Sacramento Kings. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, all the good feelings from a solid restart for the team came crashing down in heartbreaking fashion. 

Isaac planted his left leg on an everyday NBA drive through the lane when his left knee just buckled. The knee was already heavily taped and braced as a precaution from another unrelated injury that had kept him out of action since the first of January. An MRI later revealed that Isaac had indeed torn his anterior cruciate ligament ending this season and possibly next season for the young forward. Other Magic players were visibly distraught, some even in tears, as Isaac twisted in pain on the floor just underneath the basket. Magic head coach Steve Clifford was quoted after the game stating: “I hate to use the word crushing, but this one is a hard one to deal with.” 

Injuries to NBA players happen all the time. The hard truth is that playing the game comes with some inherent risk, sometimes with season or career threatening consequences. This particular injury though, feels especially harsh. Isaac was just beginning to establish himself as a bonafide star, most notably on the defensive end. Isaac came into the season having bounced back last year playing 75 of the 82 games after a rookie campaign that saw him participate in only 27 games due to an ankle injury. 

Things looked great for him in the early part of this season averaging 12 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and 1.6 steals per game. Unfortunately just 33 games in, he hyperextended his left knee. The injury was a setback indeed, but not seen as too big a deal. Then came the pandemic shutdown. 

The shutdown was actually looked at by some as a good thing for Isaac. Most felt that the season would resume at some point and the time off would afford him more healing time. While rehabbing, Isaac put his time off the court to good use as well, organizing food drives to feed underprivileged children in Central Florida. When the NBA Restart was announced Isaac was good to go to to come back and help the team make a playoff push. All systems were go for a run at a first round playoff upset, until this past Sunday evening brought it all to a screeching halt. 

The Magic players, coaches and front office staff have expressed feeling just sick or even devastated over the whole ordeal. Those feelings are completely understandable, but anyone who is a fan of the NBA could and maybe should feel at least a bit bad for the guy. One ESPN radio personality, however, wanted to know if anyone out there in the “Twitterverse” thought it was kind of funny. 

On Monday, Dan Le Batard and his cohorts on the “Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” asked in a Twitter poll “is it funny the guy who refused to kneel immediately blew out his knee?” 

Here is a little context into why such a question was asked. At the beginning of the first game back for the Magic, Isaac had refused to kneel with his NBA brethren for the national anthem. Isaac had expressed that he felt kneeling or just wearing a “Black Lives Matter” T-shirt wasn’t synonymous with supporting Black lives. He was roundly criticized, with some feeling the reason he gave wasn’t a firm or clear enough stance against the current social justice issues. 

In Le Batard’s defense, he did say a few times on the show that he himself did not think the injury was humorous at all. The question was then removed and the show issued a quick apology but the damage had already done at this point. The obvious problem being that anyone seeing the poll without actually listening to the show could deduce that Le Batard was getting some enjoyment at Isaac’s painful expense. Folks not familiar with Isaac could also have formed an inaccurate picture, as that of a spoiled NBA’er who cares little about social justice and only about himself. Undoubtedly, some were probably muttering to themselves “the guy won’t even kneel for the national anthem like everyone else for crying out loud!” Or, at the very least, thinking something to that effect.

The facts are that off the court, Isaac is an upstanding part of the Central Florida community. On the court, he was right in the middle of becoming the budding superstar player the Magic haven’t had since the Penny and Shaq days. Isaac will now be out for at least nine months. Many who have had the same injury have said it takes a full year after that to fully regain the confidence and conditioning to be anywhere close to the player they were pre-injury. Make no mistake about it, this most unfortunate injurious incident could turn out to be franchise altering for all the wrong reasons. 

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