Nassir Little Suffers Torn Labrum

In the fourth quarter of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Nassir Little of the Portland Trail Blazers got his arm tangled up with Karl-Anthony Towns, and Little’s reaction was immediate. Despite Little’s initial assessment that he was being a “drama queen,” an MRI has revealed that Little tore his labrum in his left shoulder, the team announced this morning.

UPDATE: Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that the injury “is likely to sideline [Little] for the rest of the season.”

Little was dismissive of the injury when asked about it after the loss to the Timberwolves; however, team personnel took it seriously, according to Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com.

“I went up for the rebound, my arm was extended and Kat, he just tried to rip the ball down and my arm was caught up in there,” said Little. “I just got it strained a little bit and it was hurting a lot initially, but after I kind of moved my arm around I realized I was all right and that I was being a little bit of a drama queen.”

The team medical staff evidently didn’t agree with Little’s “drama queen” assessment, as the decision was made to hold him out of Wednesday’s game. His status going forward is still to be determined.

We will update as soon as we have more information about Little’s status. Former Trail Blazer Zach Collins sustained a similar injury in 2019, which he chose to have surgically repaired.

Get well soon, Nassir!