ORLANDO, FL – Orlando Magic point guard Markelle Fultz, suffered a season ending injury on January 6th against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Midway through the 1st quarter Fultz drove left from the top of the key, planted his left foot for a eurostep before collapsing and grabbing his knee. Later it was confirmed Fultz tore the ACL in his left knee ending his season.
Last season Fultz proved he could get through an entire NBA season which he did, playing 72 games including the playoffs.
This year Fultz had plans to build and improve upon his first season with the Magic, unfortunately for him, that will have to wait until next season.
Fultz who was averaging 13 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.4 assists this season had this to say about his recovery.
“I’m in a great place as far as mental, just mindset going into everything, I actually never felt better – just in life in general.” said Fultz “Of course it’s disappointing not being out there with my teammates, you know seeing them going out there compete, that’s probably what hurts the most, just knowing – how competitive I am. – I’m all good, I’m in the right mindset and I’m just taking it day by day, just trying to make the best out of each and every day.”
Markelle on mentoring Cole Anthony, “I can only imagine how Cole feels coming into the league, no summer league, coming straight into training camp, you know, it’s different. So really just telling him to be himself, continue to be aggressive, just trying to help him with little pointers – things that I picked up with Vuc [Nikola Vucevic].”
Coach Clifford on the team adjusting to injuries, “The film tells you everything and one thing that we’re not, we’re not super organized right now – So when you look an evaluate your team, you know, execution starts with simple organization and then when I look at how much we’ve practiced and what we’ve worked on, it’s like anything, most of the things we’re not doing well, we haven’t practiced much. – I’m responsible for that so today was great in that way, we didn’t do anything live, it was totally organizational with their new playing groups.”
The Magic had their Wednesday Night game postponed due to issues with COVID-19 in the Celtics’ organization. This was the Orlando’s first time having one of their games postponed, while it was the Celtics’ third.
