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Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker suffered a torn ACL in his left knee and will miss the rest of the season, the Bucks announced Thursday. The seriousness of the injury was confirmed during an MRI exam on Thursday. Parker will require surgery and is expected to be sidelined for approximately 12 months.
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This marks the second time Parker has torn the ACL in his left knee. His rookie season ended after 25 games when he suffered a similar injury 25 months ago.
Milwaukee coach Jason Kidd said there will be some tough mental hurdles for the 21-year-old Parker.
"It's always tough anytime you have a serious injury," Kidd said. "For anybody, whether you're an athlete or a normal person, just to go through the same injury again is extremely tough. The positive is he's young, he understands he's going through it so he kind of knows what he has to do."
Parker was injured in the third quarter of Wednesday's loss to the Miami Heat when his knee buckled as he drove to the basket. The second overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft was helped from the floor by teammates.
The misfortune occurred after Parker demonstrated that he was fully recovered from the first ACL injury. He averaged 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists this season.
"You have to be positive," Kidd said. "It's just another speed bump, another hurdle that he has to overcome. He's overcome it once and he'll do it again and he'll come back stronger."
Milwaukee rookie guard Malcolm Brogdon took the news especially hard.
"He worked extremely hard to get back out on the court," Brogdon said. "He gained a lot of respect from his teammates and incoming guys like myself for how hard he worked. He was playing really well. To see him go down hurts."
Veteran center John Henson described the news as devastating for a team that has dropped 11 of its last 13 games.
"It takes the spirit from you. Any time you see a kid like that go down," Henson said. "... I think he's the most improved player in the NBA. It sucks."
Kidd is still analyzing what to do lineup-wise to replace Parker as the Bucks host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.
He mentioned that the "next-guy-up mentality" will come into play and that the Milwaukee players and coaches have to rally around another to deal with the blow.
"The fun part is you get to play the game of basketball and compete at the highest level," Kidd said. "We're all competitors and the best feeling is winning. Hopefully we can get back to that winning way to feel better.
"It doesn't take away what happened with Jabari, but we feel like we still have enough players to accomplish what we want to and that's to make the playoffs."
