OKC Thunder wing Hamidou Diallo out 4 to 6 weeks with hyper extended elbow

OKC Thunder announces Hamidou Diallo injury is more serious than initially thought as the wing will miss up to six weeks with a hyperextended elbow.

Last week during the Los Angeles Lakers game in Oklahoma City Hamidou Diallo took a rather obvious foul from LeBron James who linked his elbow and pushed him off. The intensity of the shove was egregious enough to send Diallo falling to the ground where he writhed in pain.

At the time, the referees called a defensive foul on Diallo to which the crowd erupted having seen first hand the shove (that officials were supposed to be cutting down on this season) by James.

Billy Donovan immediately called a coach’s challenge which was inexplicably lost sending LeBron James to the line.

At the time of the incident, the game was tied as the Thunder had gone on a big run during the third quarter and evened things up in the fourth.

The score by LeBron on that play put the Lakers up 111-109 and the extra free throw extended their lead by three. At game end, the Lakers won by — you guessed it — THREE points. As it turned out that one call could be cited as the turning point.

After we recovered from our dissatisfaction with the play call which benefited LA our focus shifted to noticing Diallo had not returned from the locker room.

Post-game the report didn’t indicate it was anything serious and reporters were told Diallo would be examined and get more tests the next day.

On Sunday, the news was Diallo wouldn’t play in the Golden State match and the team would update as more news was available. Side note: I swear the OKC Thunder is the best at keeping information in house.

Flash forward to Monday and the update came – but it was terrible news. As per Brady Trantham‘s tweet – Diallo had in fact suffered a hyperextended elbow but it was of a more serious nature than expected.

The Kentucky alum will miss up to six weeks as he deals with the injury and recovery from it.

As Trantham notes, conditioning isn’t typically a factor when players miss a game or two, whereas extended absences do require a good conditioning plan.

We’re left to wonder more details on the injury because we see players hyperextend their arms or legs and return in a short period of time so this injury must be of the highest grade.

The club did say Diallo could be out between four and six weeks so we’ll hope it’s closer to four weeks. In the interim, we send out our positive thoughts for a speedy recovery.

Check back tomorrow as TI dives into the players on the roster who might benefit from Diallo’s absence.