clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Danilo Gallinari Injures Thumb in EuroBasket Brawl

Danilo Gallinari injured his right thumb (or hand) in a meaningless EuroBasket game because he punched another player in the face after a basket. You can’t make this stuff up.

NBA: New Orleans Pelicans at Denver Nuggets Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The good news is that according to Adrian Wojnarowski, Danilo Gallinari’s injury will not prevent his ability to appear in training camp in two months. He suffered an injury to the thumb on his right hand, but won’t need surgery.

However, Clippers’ doctors haven’t looked at him yet, and they might recommend a different course of action. The initial news was that he had fractured his hand, but let’s hope follow-up consultations will concur with Woj’s sources that no surgery need be required.

It’s unfortunate for Gallinari that his EuroBasket experience is over, and that he won’t get to play for his National team. However, it’s his own fault for punching another player. There’s really no excuse for that, international play or no.

As for the Clippers’ angle, they just need to pray that the two months between now and training camp will provide sufficient time for his hand/thumb to recover properly. Even though Gallinari is a seasoned veteran, he’s on a new team with entirely unfamiliar teammates, and training camp is incredibly valuable for getting new players integrated into the system.

The only other good spin on this is that at least Gallinari won’t have the opportunity to injure himself in a more serious way in remaining international play. As bad as a thumb or hand injury is, at least it’s not a torn ACL or something that could rule him out for the entire season (crosses fingers).

The video of the incident can be found here.

More news should come out in a couple days after the Clippers get a look. We will keep you updated.