Jahlil Okafor Left On Crutches After Injuring His Right Ankle In His Pelicans Debut

Jahlil Okafor’s NBA career has not gone according to plan since being drafted third overall by the 76ers in the 2015 NBA Draft. Okafor averaged 17.5 points per game as a rookie, but quickly found himself losing minutes and falling out of favor with the Sixers over the next two years, as Joel Embiid blossomed into a superstar ahead of him.

Okafor was dealt to the Nets last year, but never found his footing there either. This summer, Okafor signed a deal to join the Pelicans in an attempt to jump start his NBA career once more, hoping to show he’d learned from the past and was willing to grow as a player and person. The center arrived in camp in great shape, and made his preseason debut on Sunday night against the Bulls in Chicago.

He had eight points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes of action in the game, including this impressive drive and dunk on rookie and fellow former Duke player Wendell Carter Jr.

Unfortunately, Okafor suffered a late injury to his right ankle that caused him to leave the game to get checked on, and left the arena on crutches.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Okafor was headed to get an X-ray on that ankle and would have an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of the injury.

Hopefully the crutches were just precautionary and it’s not a severe injury, allowing him to resume his attempt at landing a roster spot with the Pelicans.