Caleb Wilson reached in on Victor Wembanyama, his right hand hit the ball, and the Chicago Bulls' season changed in a single swipe. Wilson left the game against the San Antonio Spurs in the third quarter holding that had, and he didn't return to play. His final stats for the game include 15 points, 5-of-7 shooting, five rebounds, and a steal in 15 minutes.
Wilson's injury is the cherry on top of the Bulls blowing a 22-point lead, losing the game 124-119.
The diagnosis was worse than the exit. Wilson fractured his right hand, had surgery, and is now expected to miss four to six weeks. The Bulls expect to reevaluate him in about three weeks, which makes the timeline a range, not a return date. The team has not named the specific bone involved.
There is no softening what that costs. Chicago is 1-9, has lost eight straight, and the record was never the point of the season anyway. Wilson was. The No. 4 pick leads the Bulls at 18.9 points a game, with 6.2 rebounds. The working premise of the whole year was that the losing was tolerable if Wilson and the team grew through it. That growth now takes a hard pause for a month or more, and valuable rookie minutes don't just grow back.
Wilson has had a history of hand injuries even prior to his professional career. At North Carolina, Wilson broke his right thumb during practice in March, also having surgery the next day, ending the season for him. Only weeks before that, he fractured his left hand at Miami, missing six games without surgery.
These are obviously isolated incidents, but it's not a good sign when the Bulls' star player can't stay on the court. Wilson was already gutting through something. He was a game-time decision against San Antonio with right hip soreness, but he played anyway.
Now the Bulls face Atlanta at home on Friday without him, and the injury report will simply list him out for weeks. The one honest hope is the three-week evaluation, which could shorten the absence this injury has stolen. Until then, however, a season built entirely around one player's grown has to cover time without him.
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