Larry Kuzniewski
I don’t have a picture of Jarell Martin to use. He’s had that kind of career so far.
Around 7 last night, the Grizzlies released a statement saying recent first-round draft pick Jarell Martin “sustained a fractured left foot” after a collision during a workout yesterday. Martin is scheduled to have surgery on the foot today, and the release said “there is no timetable for his return.”
Martin’s NBA career has not gotten off to a very good start. He didn’t play in Summer League because of a stress injury to his left foot—the same foot he re-injured yesterday—and by all accounts was returning to form, but this foot injury is a major setback to that recovery (which, I mean, I may have written more obvious statements but not recently).
It’s probably too early to say whether Martin is actually injury prone or whether he’s just been exceedingly unlucky this summer. With any luck, this rash of injuries is just an isolated thing—anyone who has dealt with a sports injury knows that such things can snowball, with one injury following from another as you adjust the way you move to accommodate the differences you feel in how your body moves.
Either way, it’s an inauspicious beginning for a guy on whom the Grizzlies used a first round pick, regardless of what he’s projected to do later on in his career.
We’ll see how bad “no timetable” is, and how long Martin is out of action. He was probably going to spend most or all of his time in Iowa this season anyway, but you never like to see someone who, frankly, needs so much development miss such a big block of time.
