Tari Eason opens up on serious leg injury: ‘It was a trying time’

Tari Eason opens up on serious leg injury: ‘It was a trying time’

After a very encouraging rookie season, appearing in all 82 games and being one of the team’s top energy sparkplugs, Houston Rockets wing Tari Eason had a 2023-24 season to forget.

He was limited to just 22 games, averaging 9.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 0.9 blocks in 21.8 minutes. He underwent season-ending lower leg surgery in late March for an injury that bothered him the entire season, having a benign growth in his shin bone removed.

Eason recently opened up to Houston Rockets beat writer Kelly Iko of The Athletic about his injury and his ongoing recovery.

“It was a trying time,” Eason said, according to Iko. “I’ve never really dealt with a major injury or anything that has kept me out of basketball for a long period of time. It was tough on me mentally, but I had the right people in my corner, giving me good, positive energy and praying. That helped me stay grounded through the process.

“I feel good. I feel like I’m close to 100 percent. You’ve seen me jumping, running, dunking. I feel pretty normal, to be honest. It’s really about getting all the movements back to where they were.”

Eason said that he felt the injury began to creep up right before training camp in the Bahamas, saying he noticed his shin being “really, really sore” in certain instances.

“I thought that was maybe through lack of treatment or stretching, things like that,” he said. “I put more time in the training room and just ignored it. But definitely around training camp, because every time I jumped, I was in pain. I thought it might have been shin splints or something. The previous year, I played all 82 games and definitely wasn’t in the training room then as much as this year.”

As a rookie, Eason averaged 9.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals on 44.8 percent shooting, 34.3 percent from 3-point range and 75.2 percent from the free-throw line. His offensive game is still quite raw, but Eason’s an excellent multipositional defender who creates deflections and blocks shots at an elite rate for a 6-foot-8 wing. I’m high on his ceiling with time under Ime Udoka, offering a complementary skillset to young wing Cam Whitmore.

Report: Rockets will try to take ‘big swing’ in trade market in offseason

The former No. 17 overall pick will be entering the third year of his rookie contract–worth approximately $3.7 million, according to Spotrac–and will be eligible for an extension next offseason. The organization will also have to choose between picking up his fourth-year option worth about $5.7 million, which it will have until Oct. 31 to decide on.

The Rockets are in a tough Western Conference with plenty of contenders, including the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder. The Dallas Mavericks won the West, the Golden State Warriors may be better than they were last season and the San Antonio Spurs are on the climb with Victor Wembanyama. It’s not an easy trek for Houston, who improved their win total by 19 wins after finishing 22-60 in 2022-23.

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