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Gay: Broken jaw came on ‘dirty play’
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
Team USA forward Rudy Gay told USA Today on Saturday that the broken jaw he sustained in Thursday’s win over Lithuania in the FIBA World Cup in Spain came on a “dirty play.”
The Sacramento King is part of a U.S. squad that will play in the gold medal game against Serbia.
“I’ve got a fracture in my jaw, a broken tooth and am going to probably need a root canal,” Gay said. “The top is where I got hit. It’s painful. It’s uncomfortable, and it still bleeds, so I’ve got to continuously gargle. It is what it is, man.”
He also said the play in which he was elbowed was unnecessary.
After the game, he spoke up about it in the handshake line. That started a shouting match between the two teams.
“I think (the elbow) had a little bit to do with (the situation afterward),” Gay said. “It was a dirty play, man. It was a dirty play.”
Gay said he was not sure who elbowed him. It was either center Ksistof Lavrinovic or his twin brother Darjus Lavrinovic.
“I don’t even remember; I couldn’t tell them apart,” he said.
Gay had his mouth worked on until 2 a.m. Friday morning in Barcelona before flying to Madrid later in the morning.
