Andre Roberson carted off court with apparent knee injury
By Tony Heim
The injury to OKC Thunder superstar defender Andre Roberson reminds us of the fragility of this sport.
First Demarcus Cousins, now Andre Roberson. The NBA Family just can’t catch a break.
Early reports from Adrian Wojnarowski suggest Roberson ruptured his patella tendon, the same one that sidelined him for eight games only a week ago. Just watching the video tells you something serious occurred.
Andre Roberson's face tells you all you need to know about his diagnosis: Fear the worst. #Thunder pic.twitter.com/957YMcSoe2
— Carson Cunningham (@Carson_OKC) January 27, 2018
Forget this season – all that matters is Dre can return to the basketball court again. It’s easy to immediately turn our attentions to how this impacts the Thunder, but let’s stop and think about how this affects Andre Roberson the human being.
Roberson has dedicated his life to the game. He put countless hours in to becoming one of the best defenders in the world – seeing it stripped away from him because of one minor slip up is brutal.
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The pain on his face as he left the court told the whole story. Roberson immediately understood he probably isn’t going to be able to play for some time. Witnessing him come to that realization only reminds us how important this game is to these players.
Then there’s Dre the community member. The one that spends a large part of his free time giving back to the community. Roberson has evolved into a fantastic role model in Oklahoma City, for his work both on-and-off the court.
We grow so close to these players and these teams through a screen that we forget they are humans too. That they also experience emotions. If we truly love these players, we should only be concerned about Roberson’s well-being.
For the next couple of hours keep Dre in your mind and not the Trade Deadline. That’s all I ask.