TJ Ford Hits Court Hard

You may or may not have seen the unfortunate injury of TJ Ford as highlights were shown to open ESPN Sportscenter. In the Hawks vs. Raptors game Tuesday night, TJ Ford was on a fast break with Hawks rookie Al Horford trailing. Ford went for the layup and Horford went for the block. Unfortunately Horford's hand caught Ford ackwardly and Ford came down onto the court in what looked like bad whiplash. Ford's neck/head snapped back against the court, and Ford was taken out from the game on a stretcher in a neck brace. Chris Bosh indicated later it was a relief to see that TJ was moving after the fall.

Horford insisted the play wasn't dirty, but Horford was ejected from the game with a flagrant foul for this. He stated he was fooled by Ford's layup move and when he went to block the ball he caught Ford's head. He later said he's not a dirty type of player and hopes Ford is ok. It's unfortunate for TJ, because he had a previous spinal injury which he was able to recover from. That injury caused him to miss the entire 2004-05 season with neck surgery and recovery. Let's hope this isn't as serious and that TJ is back sooner rather than later.

Read Raptors' Ford takes a hard fall.