Surgery came five days later.Īfter a long season-and, then, a long off-season-of rehabilitation, though, Greg Popovich called Gay over the summer and invited the free agent to compete for a championship in San Antonio.
After the game, the Kings confirmed that their second-leading scorer would miss the rest of the year with a torn Achilles tendon. Instead, as he pushed off his left foot, Gay felt a pop and crumpled to the ground, knowing that the worst had happened before the team’s medical staff even made it off the bench. Pacers big man Myles Turner rotated over to deny an open look, giving Gay a clear path to the rim that appeared destined to result in an emphatic baseline finish and two points. With his Sacramento Kings leading the Indiana Pacers in the third quarter of an otherwise-forgettable January game, Rudy Gay corralled a pass in the right corner. He’d made the same move countless times before.
