Jalen Williams: Oklahoma City Thunder star requires surgery for broken leg and dislocated ankle

Williams - a shooting guard who entered Sunday having averaged 18 points per game in his first 250 NBA contests - has been an All-Star and an All-NBA player already in his career and was a huge part of the Thunder team that won the 2024-25 NBA title.

He injured his lower left leg and saw his ankle turn at an unnatural angle in a drive with 1:14 remaining, with Williams immediately treated by medical personnel after going down underneath the basket on the Thunder's offensive end.

"Dub, as everybody knows, is as tough as they come," Thunder GM Sam Presti said at a news conference in Oklahoma City.

"He's an elite competitor. Even last night, just miraculous in terms of his outlook and the way he's looking forward to attacking this. We're going to be with him the entire way."

Williams' ankle was draped with towels before a stretcher was brought out, with players left visibly shaken by the incident and the game stopped for around five minutes before the Thunder completed their victory.

"Just feel bad for him," Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said in a post-match interview, fighting back tears as he spoke. "Nothing more than that."

Williams, seated up on the stretcher, saluted the cheering fans with two thumbs-up signals as he was wheeled off the court.

It was a double gut punch for the Thunder on Monday, with the team also revealing that forward Cason Wallace will need surgery to repair a left labral tear after suffering an injury in the same game.

The timetable for Wallace's return will also be set after surgery, but such procedures typically require several months of rehabilitation. Williams was an All-Defensive team selection in 2024-25; Wallace was picked to that team last season.

"Tough night last night," Presti said. "There's no way to paint that differently. We say within our walls all the time there's a difference between being positive and being optimistic.

"Not going to sit up here and say this is exactly where we want to be or this is how we'd like to have it, but at the same time, we're extremely optimistic about the recovery for both the players. Most importantly, things could have been a lot worse."

The Thunder have experienced major injury-related challenges in recent years, including Chet Holmgren missing the entirety of what would have been his rookie season with a foot issue.

The team's 2024 first-round pick, Nikola Topic, missed all but 10 games in the previous two seasons - first because of a torn ACL, then with testicular cancer. And Williams missed 49 regular-season games a year ago with an array of issues, mostly wrist and hamstring problems.

"We've had some tough, uniquely tough, circumstances over the last few years," Presti said. "One of the things I tried to say to the staff this morning when I talked to them was we can't get to the point where we feel like this is a common situation. But that being said, it's our situation."

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