Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
White breaks left foot
Forward to be out for months after freak injury during layup drills
MIAMI — Okaro White said there is no use looking back at how a seemingly innocuous layup drill before Tuesday’s practice has left him with a broken left foot and sidelined for months.
So, instead, the second-year Miami Heat forward said there is one particular priority today, when for the first time in his life he undergoes anesthesia, to repair a fractured fifth metatarsal.
“Hopefully, I wake back up,” he said with a laugh before watching the Heat face the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
White said he has been told it is a non-weight-bearing injury, requiring him to be off his feet for four to six weeks. Players generally then require an additional 50 percent of the time that they were off their feet for their rehab.
“I can’t even like,” White said when attempting to explain how he was hurt, “a freak accident. I guess it was something that was building up and yesterday it finally gave out.
“I went up for a regular layup, a regular reverse layup, and just kind of on the way up I just felt it kind of pop.” That pop was the fracture. “Yeah,” he said, “I heard a pop. It wasn’t like your bone broke in half. It was like you crack your knuckles. It was one of those type of sounds.
He will now be sidelined beyond midseason.
“They actually haven’t really given me a set time,” he said. “The only kind of time they gave me, they said it will be a non-bearing injury after surgery. So no pressure on it for like four to six weeks.”
The Heat already are without former starting small forward Rodney McGruder, who underwent preseason leg surgery and is out indefinitely.
The difference is that McGruder has been back on his feet since that surgery.
“Yeah,” White said, “and that’s one thing I asked them, because the way Rodney’s been able to walk around himself. They were like four to six weeks you can’t be like that.”
White admitted he was nervous about his first surgery.
“Never been injured more than the shoulder injury I had,” he said. “Never any surgery, never been put under, so it’s all new for me.”
Coach Erik Spoelstra said it was a freak injury.
“It happened in practice and it was like a crazy movement,” Spoelstra said. “He didn’t roll his foot, he just jumped. Sometimes these unfortunate things happen.”
Spoelstra said White had been trending up with both his play and his conditioning.
“And I feel like I jinxed him,” Spoelstra said. “I was just commenting last week, looking at all of our assessments, looking at how far he’s come, virtually all of his numbers have been in the green.
“He’s transformed his body. He’s gotten stronger. He’s fit. And all of his functional movement was testing so great. It absolutely just kills you when you to see something like this happen. But he’s got a lot of resiliency. He’ll be back.”
In addition to White and McGruder being out, the Heat have center and guards
A.J. Hammons Matt Williams Jr. Derrick Walton Jr.
and on assignment to their developmental-league team, the G League Sioux Falls Skyforce.
“How does it affect the team? Everything does affect the team, but we’ll step up with who we got and continue to try to improve,” Spoelstra said.
The injuries and absence leave the Heat with 12 available players, one fewer than teams are allowed to have active on game nights.
Spoelstra said he would go over the roster today with Heat President
and Heat General Manager
Riley Andy Elisburg. Pat
“We’ll figure it out,” he said. “That’s why Sioux Falls is here, or around. We have two-way players that we can bring up as necessary.”
White, a 6-foot-8 combo forward out of Florida State, had started four games this season at power forward, with the Heat 2-2 in those games. He is averaging 3.3 points and 1.8 rebounds in an average of 13.3 minutes in his six appearances this season.
White is in the second year of a contract that pays $1.3 million this season, to become a restricted free agent in the offseason, provided the Heat make a $1.7 million qualifying offer.
“It’s done now,” White said. “I can’t go back and go back in time, so I just try to make the best of it from here.”