Jonathan Isaac suffers ankle injury during jersey unveiling event for Orlando Magic, per report
Jonathan Isaac is out with a freak injury thanks to the Orlando Magic's new city edition uniforms
Non-basketball injuries are sadly a part of professional sports. Life is hazardous. Things happen. But in the case of the Orlando Magic and third-year forward Jonathan Isaac, the team has no one to blame but themselves.
According to Josh Robbins of The Athletic, Isaac will miss Friday night's game against the San Antonio Spurs with a sprained ankle. When did he sprain it? During a team event held on Thursday night to unveil the Magic's new orange "city edition" uniforms.
🍊O R L #ORLAboveAll 🍊 pic.twitter.com/TEJnxUxST8
— Orlando Magic (@OrlandoMagic) November 15, 2019
It is unclear at this point how exactly Isaac managed to injure himself at the event. Photoshoots like this tend to be fairly stationary, so in all likelihood, it was just a random hazard. But such events are common throughout professional sports as a way of promoting new merchandise. Typically, there has been no cost of having them, but now that a team has lost a major player to injury, we could see a bit more caution in these kinds of unveilings moving forward. After all, mannequins exist for a reason. So does photoshop. There are plenty of ways to sell jerseys beyond putting your best players in the line of fire.
With Isaac out, Al-Farouq Aminu will join the starting lineup in his place. Orlando relies on Isaac to spearhead its excellent defense, as it is one of only two teams in the NBA giving up less than 100 points per game. Unfortunately, it is also the only NBA team scoring fewer than 100 points per game. Aminu is a solid defender, but not nearly as good as Isaac, and he isn't going to do much to fix their flailing offense. If Isaac ends up missing an extended period based off this injury, a jersey unveiling event could wind up tanking the 4-7 Magic's playoff hopes this season.
















