A stretcher had to be brought out onto the floor in Oklahoma City on Tuesday night, as Thunder center Nerlens Noel suffered an apparent head injury during the team’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Noel went up to contest an attempted dunk by Andrew Wiggins, but the Wolves’ wing caught Noel in the face with his forearm.
The blow looked to knock Noel out, and the big man fell to the floor. To make matters wore, Noel’s head bounced off the floor, leading to him laying there for a few minutes while a stretcher was brought out. Here’s a video of the incident, viewer discretion is advised.
Nerlens Noel takes a hard elbow from Wiggins, lands head-first on the floor. Looked like he was knocked out cold. #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/p38D8MnTVM
— Carson Cunningham (@Carson_OKC) January 9, 2019
Thunder players looked understandably shaken up following Noel getting hurt, and eventually, he got loaded onto the stretcher and wheeled off the court while Thunder fans gave him an ovation.
Prayers up for Nerlens Noel. The Thunder big man caught an elbow, hit his head and had to be stretchered off 🙏 pic.twitter.com/22qPKtz1l6
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 9, 2019
There were some bad feelings in the aftermath, namely out of Dennis Schröder, who was not happy with the way some members of the Timberwolves carried themselves.
Dennis Schroder is not happy with Wolves players, who were talking amongst each other and laughing a little. Schroder yelled out, "What are you laughing at?" And has been staring at their side for the last couple minutes.
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 9, 2019
Dennis Schröder went over to Wiggins and had some words about that elbow he gave Noel.
They had to be separated.
— 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗮𝗺 𝗠. 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼 (@SuaveCEO_) January 9, 2019
Eventually, Schröder got into it with Wolves guard Jeff Teague, leading to technical fouls and Teague getting tossed.
Teague & Schroder getting into it pic.twitter.com/0J4BduK6gJ
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) January 9, 2019
This is really high on the list of things you never want to see during a game. Noel’s head bouncing off of the floor like this is awfully scary, and while there is no word no what injury he suffered nor the severity of said injury, here’s to hoping that Noel is able to make a speedy recovery and return to the floor sometime soon.
