Ranking the 5 weirdest injuries reported in NBA history
The NBA is fraught with incidents where different forms of contact lead to serious injuries. Sometimes, various one-off incidents result in injuries that end up adversely affecting a player’s career. In the past, we have seen innumerable freak accidents that have led to players injuring themselves, sometimes due to highly unusual incidents. In this article, we look at five of the weirdest injuries that have been reported in NBA history.
5 weirdest injuries recorded in NBA history
#1 Tony Allen’s after game dunk
Anthony Allen is a former American basketball player who won the NBA championship with the Bolton Celtics back in 2008. He spent the majority of his career with the Celtics before moving to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2010 and finishing his career at the New Orleans Pelicans in 2018.
Back in 2007, Tony Allen ended up inuring himself due to a bizarre reason. After the whistle blew for the third quarter in the Celtics’ NBA game against the Indiana Pacers, Tony tried to dunk after the whistle had been blown.
However, instead of landing a spectacular dunk, Tony Allen had an awkward landing which led to him tearing both his ACL and MCL. What’s more, he even ended up missing the dunk!
#2 Lionel Simmons Gameboy injury
Lionel Simmons, aka "L-Train", is a former American basketball player who spent seven seasons with the Sacramento Kings. He was the Kings’ seventh pick in the 1990 NBA draft and had his career end prematurely with chronic injuries in 1997.
However, the most bizarre injury that he suffered in his NBA career came during his rookie season. Lionel Simmons ended up with tendinitis in his right wrist and forearm after playing on his Gameboy too much. Simmons ended up missing only two games, but the nature of the injury makes it one of the most bizarre ones reported in NBA history.
#3 Muggsy Bogues’ “ointment fumes” injury
Tyrone Curtis "Muggsy" Bogues is the shortest NBA player (5 3”) in history and is best known for the ten seasons that he spent with the Charlotte Hornets.
Bogues retired in 2001 and, by then, had stints with the Washington Bullets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Toronto Raptors.
The reason he makes it to the list is due to his bizarre “ointment fumes” injury. Muggsy Bogues once ended up missing the second half of a game after inhaling fumes of an ointment that was being used to treat a sore muscle at halftime.
The incident only forced him to sit out of the second half, but the nature of the injury itself warrants a place in this list.
#4 Charles Barkley’s eye lotion injury
Charles Barkley is one of NBA’s greatest ever power forwards and was nicknamed the “Round Mound of Rebound" due to his rebound skills. Barkley never ended up winning the NBA championship, something which can be attributed to a certain Michael Jordan and his dominant Chicago Bulls side.
Barkley spent 8 years with the Philadelphia 76ers and had further stints at the Phoenix Suns and the Houston Rockets. Before the season opener of the 1994 NBA season, Charles Barkley went to an Eric Clapton concert.
The Pheonix Suns were up against the Sacramento Kings but Barkley had to miss the game after he rubbed body lotion onto his corneas.
The lotion somehow ended up causing damage to his corneas, and he had to sit out of the first game of the new NBA season. Of course, there haven’t been many more bizarre injuries in NBA history than this one.
#5 Derrick Rose tries to enjoy a sliced apple
Now with the Detroit Pistons, Derrick Rose is one of the biggest enigmas in NBA history. Drafted back in the 2008 NBA draft as the number one pick by his hometown team Chicago Bulls, Rose set the league on fire and won the NBA Rookie of the Year award at the end of the season.
Since his 2010-11 MVP campaign, Rose has suffered from constant injuries that have stopped him from reaching his full potential. Despite the number of injuries that he has suffered, Derrick Rose’s apple slicing injury is the weirdest of them all, comprehensively.
Rose was trying to slice an apple one morning when he ended up cutting his arm instead. He had to be rushed to the hospital where he received ten stitches.
However, the injury did not stop him from featuring in the next game, which was against the New York Knicks. However, the injury itself was as weird as it could have been!