Fansided

20 NBA Hall-of-Fame careers that were cut short by injury

By Josh Cornelissen

Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls and John Wall, Washington Wizards. Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls and John Wall, Washington Wizards. Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
19 of 22
Next
NBA
Braond Roy, Portland Trail Blazers. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images) /

NBA Hall-of-Fame career cut short: Brandon Roy

After starring at the University of Washington as one of many elite basketball players to come out of Seattle, Washington, Brandon Roy was selected sixth overall in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Portland Trail Blazers. He averaged 16.8 points per game out of the gate as a rookie playing alongside Zach Randolph for the Blazers, then with Randolph gone the following year stepped it up and dropped 19.1 points per game.

That season he earned his first All-Star berth, and over the next two seasons would add two more and a pair of All-NBA selections. The Trail Blazers had built an excellent roster around Roy and they were poised to become not only a Western Conference contender, but Roy was going to become a true superstar.

At the end of the 2010 regular season, however, Roy tore the meniscus in his right knee. He underwent surgery and returned just eight days later, an unfathomably short recovery time, and averaged 27.7 minutes per game across three playoff games. The lack of cartilage in his knees caused serious issues during the next season, and in January he underwent arthroscopic surgery on both knees, returning five weeks later.

Roy’s last great moment came in the 2011 playoffs. He had struggled to the finish line of the season, averaging just 12.2 points for the season, but in Game 4 of the Blazers’ first-round series exploded for 18 fourth-quarter points to propel Portland to a win. The next two games of that series were his final two in a Blazers uniform, however, and after missing the next year would only last five games in a comeback attempt with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Roy was 25 years old when he suffered that meniscus tear, and just 26 when he (essentially) retired from basketball. The effortless way he scored the basketball and the strength of the Portland team around him suggest that he would have racked up significant personal recognition and plenty of team success, but instead, he will forever miss out on the Hall of Fame.

Home/NBA