Utah Jazz guard Vince Williams Jr. is believed to have suffered a “significant,” potentially season-ending injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee after a collision with Houston Rockets forward Tari Eason on Monday night, according to Sarah Todd of the Deseret News — an away-from-the ball play that Jazz head coach Will Hardy later termed “not basketball.”
The collision occurred early in the second quarter at Toyota Center in Houston on Monday. After Rockets guard Josh Okogie stole the ball from Utah’s Brice Sensabaugh, Eason and Williams sprinted back down the court to get into the play. As they ran along the sideline, Eason bumped Williams off, attempting to knock him out of the play and clear the path for a 2-on-1 fast break, which he finished with a slam dunk. The contact knocked Williams off balance, sending him sprawling to the floor; as he fell, his left foot planted, and his left knee bent in the wrong direction.
Williams immediately grabbed for his left knee in evident pain, and needed to be helped off the court and back to the visiting locker room by Jazz staffers. He did not return, finishing with one point, three rebounds, one assist and one steal in eight minutes of playing time.
Advertisement
Eason played on, finishing with 11 points, 10 rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block in 32 minutes of work as the Rockets cruised to a 125-105 win.
“It doesn’t look great,” Hardy said of the injury after the loss, which dropped Utah to 18-40 on the season. “We’ll get an MRI when we get back [to Utah on Tuesday]. That’s not basketball.”
According to Todd, Eason went to the Jazz locker room following the game to apologize.
“I‘ve known Vince for a little bit and he’s just a really good dude, hard working dude,” Eason said. “It was just respect. I’ve got a lot of respect for him, and I know it’s his contract year … I didn’t intend on doing anything. My intentions are always just to play hard. So I went to go holler and just check on him. Obviously nothing helps, but just tell him that I apologize. You know, nobody’s trying to hurt anybody.”
A second-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft out of VCU, the 25-year-old Williams began his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, only landing in Salt Lake City earlier this month as part of the Jazz’s blockbuster trade for All-Star big man Jaren Jackson Jr. He’d averaged 5.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 15.0 minutes per game in his first five appearances with the Jazz.
Advertisement
After carving out a niche as a hard-nosed 3-and-D wing in Memphis during the Grizzlies’ injury-and-suspension-ravaged 2023-24 season, Williams missed the lion’s share of last season with a stress reaction in his left tibia and a Grade 3 right ankle sprain. Healthy again this season, he’d stepped back into a rotation role amid another injury-filled and tumultuous campaign in Memphis, often serving as a primary ball-handler; while he has struggled to get his jumper online, Williams was averaging a career-best 4.2 assists per game before Monday’s injury.
With the Jazz losing multiple starters to season-ending injuries, and clearly, um, Prioritizing Player Development in an attempt to keep the top-eight-protected 2026 first-round draft pick they owe the Oklahoma City Thunder, the final seven weeks of the season offered Williams — whose contract includes a $2.5 million team option for 2026-27 — an opportunity to showcase his wares and prove he merited a guaranteed roster spot next season, whether in Utah or elsewhere. Now, though, he could be facing a long comeback, and an uncertain future.
