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Each NBA team’s most devastating injury in franchise history

By Christopher Jeter

Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls. (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Al Jefferson, Charlotte Hornets
Al Jefferson, Charlotte Hornets. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images) /

Most devastating injury in Charlotte Hornets history: Al Jefferson

Two seasons after finishing with an abysmal 7-59 record in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, the then-Charlotte Bobcats turned things around. They reached the postseason for what was the second time in franchise history at the time (once the New Orleans Hornets changed their name to the Pelicans in 2013, the Charlotte franchise absorbed the original Hornets’ history, so it was really the ninth).

Journeyman center Al Jefferson contributed greatly to that turnaround, as he led the team in scoring, win shares, win shares per 48 minutes and Player Efficiency Rating (PER), while helping the Bobcats to a 43-39 record and the seventh seed in the 2014 Eastern Conference playoffs.

Unfortunately, that meant that the Bobcats had to face LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat in the first round. Many fans and analyst believed the Heat would quickly flick Charlotte aside, but the feisty Bobcats more than held their own in the early stages of the first game.

Charlotte’s smothering defense, combined with their aversion to turnovers, played a significant role, but so did Jefferson’s work on offense. For as great as those Heat teams were, they had a glaring weakness on the inside, as the team lacked a legit big man to neutralize Jefferson’s brutish post game.

While players like Jefferson were slowly being phased out of a league that had started to see the value of the 3-pointer, he gave the underdog Bobcats and their fans a tiny shred of hope that they could upset the defending NBA champs. That was until he injured his foot with little more than two minutes left in the first quarter, later diagnosed as plantar fasciitis.

He played through the injury in the Games 2 and 3, but he was clearly not as effective. That allowed Miami to coast to the sweep that everyone thought they would complete.

With a healthy Jefferson, Charlotte could have stolen a game or two from the Heat, maybe even won the series (okay, that’s a bit of a stretch). But we’ll never know.