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 “freak accident,” 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’m probably good. I’ll probably be out for a few weeks. I’m probably straight. 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.
“I was like, bro, there’s no way this is happening to me,” Hendricks tells us in late April, six months after the injury went down in October. “You know, you would see it online happen to other players, like crazy injuries, but for it to actually happen to you, it’s crazy.”
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. “They were really distraught,” he remembers. “I was just trying to keep a calm voice, pretty much tell them everything is straight, I’m good…[But] inside my mind, I’m thinking about 100 different things.”
The reality of everything that had happened didn’t really hit him until he got back to Salt Lake City and was laying in his bed with his foot elevated. “That’s probably when it really hit me,” he says. “Like, Wow, I’m really hurt. I can’t do nothing. My season’s over.”
But instead of letting the disappointment consume him, Taylor faced the injury head-on. The journey would go on to shape his character—not just as a hooper, but as a person determined to bounce back.
Hendricks knew he didn’t 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 “building up the bricks,” 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.
“I’m 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,” Hendricks says. “So to be in a position like that where you can’t really do anything or you can’t do a lot of things yourself, it was really frustrating.”
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’s even picked up new approaches to taking care of his body, including icing and wearing barefoot shoes, which help with his strength and mobility. “I really felt myself getting better every week, so that was kind of the motivation, the driving point,” Taylor says.
If the healing process sounds quick, it’s because it was. Taylor’s twin brother, Tyler, also shared what it was like watching Taylor go through this process from the outside. “His 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,” Tyler said. “He wasn’t forcing it to get better. He was just taking his time and doing all the stuff he had to do. So we’re happy to see him out there.”
Now on the other side of his setback, Taylor is focused, driven and ready to elevate his game using everything he’s learned during the recovery process.
“The way this season went, I’m going to keep that in mind,” he says. “Anytime it gets hard, just think about where you were a year ago. You weren’t able to play, you weren’t 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—or where I will be.”
Photos courtesy of Taylor Hendricks.
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