{"id":830867,"date":"2025-06-10T14:01:32","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T18:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=830867"},"modified":"2025-06-10T14:01:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T18:01:35","slug":"utah-jazz-taylor-hendricks-rehab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/slam-256\/utah-jazz-taylor-hendricks-rehab\/","title":{"rendered":"After Season-Ending Injury Utah’s Taylor Hendricks Details His Journey to Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First he went into shock. Then, the adrenaline started to set in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next thing he knew, Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks was being stretchered off the court to the back of American Airlines Center in Dallas. The injury, which he now describes as a \u201cfreak accident,\u201d had occurred during a regular-season matchup between the Jazz and the Mavericks as Hendricks, who was running down the court, seemingly slipped. After athletic trainers rushed over to pop his dislocated ankle back in place, Hendricks thought to himself, OK, I\u2019m probably good. I\u2019ll probably be out for a few weeks. I\u2019m probably straight. <\/em>But later, X-rays would reveal that his season was over before it had ever really started. Three games in, he was ruled out indefinitely with a fractured fibula and a dislocated ankle on his right leg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was like, bro, there\u2019s no way this is happening to me<\/em>,\u201d Hendricks tells us in late April, six months after the injury went down in October. \u201cYou know, you would see it online happen to other players, like crazy injuries, but for it to actually happen to you, it\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hendricks, whose family was watching the game live on television, remembers his phone immediately blowing up with calls from his mom, Danielle, and his siblings. \u201cThey were really distraught,\u201d he remembers. \u201cI was just trying to keep a calm voice, pretty much tell them everything is straight, I\u2019m good\u2026[But] inside my mind, I\u2019m thinking about 100 different things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality of everything that had happened didn\u2019t really hit him until he got back to Salt Lake City and was laying in his bed with his foot elevated. \u201cThat\u2019s probably when it really hit me,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, Wow, I\u2019m really hurt. I can\u2019t do nothing. My season\u2019s over.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But instead of letting the disappointment consume him, Taylor faced the injury head-on. The journey would go on to shape his character\u2014not just as a hooper, but as a person determined to bounce back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hendricks knew he didn\u2019t want to let the injury define him, but in those early months, he also realized that he had a ways to go before even thinking about returning to the court. After undergoing surgery, Hendricks focused on getting stronger and \u201cbuilding up the bricks,\u201d as he puts it. Learning how to rely on others for help, though, was one of the biggest learning curves for him throughout the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the type of person that likes to do things, if I can, by myself. I try not to ask for help unless I really, really need it,\u201d Hendricks says. \u201cSo to be in a position like that where you can\u2019t really do anything or you can\u2019t do a lot of things yourself, it was really frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of his support system, which includes Danielle, who even moved to SLC to support him post-op, teammates like Collin Sexton and the Utah coaching staff, Hendricks has gone from taking things day by day to almost a full recovery going into the summer. From starting to walk without crutches to without a boot and scooter entirely. Throughout the process, he\u2019s even picked up new approaches to taking care of his body, including icing and wearing barefoot shoes, which help with his strength and mobility. \u201cI really felt myself getting better every week, so that was kind of the motivation, the driving point,\u201d Taylor says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If the healing process sounds quick, it’s because it was. Taylor\u2019s twin brother, Tyler, also shared what it was like watching Taylor go through this process from the outside. \u201cHis healing process was pretty quick honestly. I felt like he healed pretty well. He took it very well, and he did all the right things to get better,\u201d Tyler said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t forcing it to get better. He was just taking his time and doing all the stuff he had to do. So we\u2019re happy to see him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now on the other side of his setback, Taylor is focused, driven and ready to elevate his game using everything he\u2019s learned during the recovery process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way this season went, I\u2019m going to keep that in mind,\u201d he says. \u201cAnytime it gets hard, just think about where you were a year ago. You weren\u2019t able to play, you weren\u2019t even able to walk. So I feel like things like that will definitely help me push through. Be grateful and have gratitude for where I am\u2014or where I will be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of Taylor Hendricks.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First he went into shock. Then, the adrenaline started to set in. Next thing he knew, Jazz forward Taylor Hendricks was being stretchered off the court to the back of American Airlines Center in Dallas. The injury, which he now describes as a \u201cfreak accident,\u201d had occurred during a regular-season matchup between the Jazz and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":544,"featured_media":830877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65393],"tags":[62525,65411,13008],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-830867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slam-256","tag-feature-1","tag-slam-256","tag-utah-jazz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830867"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830910,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830867\/revisions\/830910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830867"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=830867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}