San Antonio Spurs Big Man Suffers Likely Season-Ending Injury


After suffering a non-displaced fracture of his left patella on Tuesday night, it appears that the season is over for San Antonio Spurs big man Charles Bassey. 

The knee injury is an unfortunate end to Bassey's second season in the NBA, after a nice little run over the last month off the bench for Gregg Popovich. The 6'11" center had been averaging about eight points and six-and-a-half rebounds over this last stretch.

“Poor guy," said Pop when learning of the diagnosis. "He was just learning how to play.”

Bassey had been on a two-way contract, until he signed a 4-year, $10.2M deal with the Spurs last month. $5.2M of it is guaranteed. After the signing, Popovich noted of Bassey, “He’s just got a lot of potential like a blank slate. He’s got a good size and got some good natural instincts. So as he gets minutes and plays, it’ll be fun to see how it progresses."

In 35 games with the Spurs this season, Bassey averaged 5.7 points, 5.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per contest.

Photo: Rob Gray-USA TODAY Sports